Sterile insect farms: How one company is rearing an army of non-gmo, non-Wolbachia sterile mosquitoes to combat insecticide-resistant species

The sterile insect technique (SIT) was invented over 75 years ago when Drs. Edward Knipling & Raymond Bushland irradiated new world screwworm flies via a hospital x-ray irradiator. SIT is an effective method of pest control, but is reliant on the ability to rear large quantities of the target pest. For most pest control entities, large-scale rearing (and sterilization), is unachievable due to the high costs of building & maintaining gargantuan-sized rearing facilities. Sterile Insect Farms (SIF)—a new division of Rad Source Technologies, Inc.—is continuing the doctors' work by rearing millions of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with the aim to equip mosquito control districts with ready-to-release sterile males. SIF uses a state-of-the-art rearing facility and the original SIT method (x-rays), to produce non-gmo, non-Wolbachia, ready-to-deploy sterile male mosquitoes for mosquito control programs.