Nine million sterile males released

THE Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition announced that it will increase the release of male tiger mosquitoes this year to nine million specimens.

This is part of a pilot project of biological control through the Sterile Insect Technique (TIE) that the government department has been promoting since 2017 in the Ribera Baixa region of Valencia.

In previous years, this technique has reportedly managed to reduce the population of tiger mosquitoes by up to 75 per cent.

Eight million insects were released in the Ribera Baixa in 2022. The release of sterile males was resumed at the end of February in this new sea ­