Cyprus is battling an influx of disease-carrying mosquitoes by bringing in hundreds of thousands of the insects after being sterilized through radiation.
The battle is primarily focused on eradicating the Aedes aegypti variety of mosquito that has been found in large numbers in the island nation’s coastal town of Larnaca.
Cyprus’ Environmental Health Services head Herodotos Herodotou told The Associated Press that the Aedes aegypti has been specifically targeted to prevent its potential migration to continental Europe.
The effort is also targeting the Aedes albopictus mosquito on the island, which is more common in Europe.
Both varieties can transmit to humans dangerous diseases such as dengue, Zika and yellow fever, as well as West Nile virus.
Herodotou said that his service collects and dispatches both varieties of mosquitos — both eggs and grown insects — to laboratories in Italy and Austria where they’re bred and separated into male and female.
The male mosquitos are then sterilized by being exposed to ionizing radiation.
About 100,000 mosquitoes are then brought back to the island every week. The mating won’t produce any offspring and as a result, the mosquito population diminishes.
