Why scientists are dropping thousands of mosquitoes in Hawaii forests

In a bid to control the mosquito population on the islands of Hawaii, scientists are using a shocking method.

Dozens of biodegradable pods, each containing nearly a thousand mosquitoes, were dropped into the forests of Hawaii using drones.

According to CNN, this is an effort to control increasing mosquito population as the dropped were lab reared male mosquitoes each carrying a bacterium that causes the eggs not to hatch.

When these mosquitoes mate with female counterparts, it won’t result in reproduction of the already invasive population that has almost decimated the native bird population.

One group of birds particularly threatened by these little creatures are Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Hawaii was once home to more than 50 species of honeycreepers, but now only 17 remain, most of which are endangered.

The mosquito population in these forests are so dangerous that they resulted in the functional extinction of a small grey bird known as akikiki and only a few of yellow-green akeke’e are remaining in the region.

According to the American Bird Conservancy’s Hawaii program director Dr Chris Farmer, these mosquitoes are not native to the region and cause avian malaria.

He added that since the birds are native and have no resistance to the disease, malaria becomes an existential threat for them.

He warned, “If we don’t break the cycle, we are going to lose our honeycreepers.”