Three million of the sterilised males were released into the wild to breed with female mosquitoes who only breed once,meaning they would then not have offspring and the mosquito population would dwindle.
CSIRO scientist and UQ Associate Professor Nigel Beebe said the results were beyond their wildest dreams,with an overall reduction of more than 80 per cent of the mosquito population across the three trial sites.
“We were really happy with the results but what really surprised us was that the following season one of those[test sites] was completely devoid of mosquitoes,” Professor Beebe said.
“So we were very happy with that result,and then the second site showed good suppression and the third one bounced back so we’ve got a really interesting data set to look at why there was such a difference there.”
Millions of people around the world contract dengue each year,and thousands die from the disease,let alone other mosquito-borne illnesses.
Professor Beebe said the overall results showed the method was extremely effective at suppressing the population ofA. aegyptiin urban areas,which was vital for stopping the spread of debilitating diseases like dengue.
″Aedes aegypti is an invasive species,it feeds exclusively on humans,and so it only really exists in urban areas,so you can remove it from the urban areas where it is causing trouble,” he said.