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Drones are dumping thousands of mosquitos on Hawaii [1]

['Gail Sherman']

Date: 2025-06-24

Drones are dropping pods containing thousands of mosquitoes in the forests of Hawaii. To a mosquito magnet, this is a nightmare scenario, but it is all for a good cause. The mosquitoes are actually on a rescue mission.

For millions of years, there were dozens of species of Hawaiian honeycreepers. They survived the arrival of Polynesian settlers, but it didn't take long after the European colonizers arrived for things to go south for birds and other wildlife. Whaling ships arrived in the 1800s and brought mosquitoes with them. The greatest threat to Hawaiian forest birds is avian malaria, carried by the invasive mosquitoes. At least 33 species of honeycreepers are already extinct, and many of the 17 extant species are critically endangered.

A partnership between the American Bird Conservancy and a multi-agency organization called Birds Not Mosquitoes is working to save the honeycreeper by targeting and eliminating mosquitoes. Their weapon? More mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are all male, so they do not bite. They are also infected with bacteria that cause females to produce eggs that are sterile. It's a long game, but over time, the project hopes to reduce the mosquito population and prevent the loss of more species to extinction.

Helicopters were initially used to drop half a million mosquitoes in biodegradable pods into the remote locations where the birds and mosquitoes live, but drones are safer and more flexible. This short documentary from Birds Not Mosquitoes explores the project, highlighting the importance of birds to Hawaii's biodiversity and culture.

The mosquitoes are just one element of the overall conservation strategy for the honeycreeper and other forest birds in Hawaii. Hawaii is known as the "extinction capital of the world." Hanna Mounce, the program manager of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, puts it succinctly: "We owe it to them to fix this."

Previously:

• The ethics of wiping out a mosquito species

• Deadly mosquito threat from LA pools abandoned during fires

•' The damage from inaction is enormous' — Rising threat of Asian Tiger Mosquito across the US

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