Google parent Alphabet seeks EPA approval to release 32 million sterile mosquitoes in Florida and California

WASHINGTON — The parent company of Google is seeking federal permission to release tens of millions of mosquitoes across two states, and the public has only days left to weigh in.

Verily, the life-sciences company owned by Google parent Alphabet, has filed an Experimental Use Permit application with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to release up to 32 million lab-reared male mosquitoes across Florida and California over two years, according to One America News Network. The plan calls for up to 16 million mosquitoes per state, with releases proposed in Florida in the first year and California in the second. The mosquitoes have not been released; the EPA is reviewing the application and accepting public comments through June 5, 2026, after which it will make a decision.

The proposal targets Culex quinquefasciatus, commonly known as the southern house mosquito, a species that spreads West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis. It is part of Alphabet’s Debug Program, a long-running effort to suppress mosquito populations and the diseases they carry.

How the program works

The Debug mosquitoes are infected with Wolbachia, a bacterium that occurs naturally in roughly 40% of insect species. The insects are not genetically modified. When a Wolbachia-carrying male mates with a wild female that lacks the same strain, the resulting eggs are non-viable and do not hatch, a phenomenon called cytoplasmic incompatibility. Over successive generations, that gradually suppresses the local population rather than eliminating it.

Only males are released, and male mosquitoes do not bite. Because biting and disease transmission come from females, adding millions of sterile males does not increase the risk to people or animals, the company says. Verily uses automated rearing systems and artificial-intelligence sex-sorting to ensure no females are released, then distributes the males by vehicle or drone.

The underlying method is the Sterile Insect Technique, a pest-control approach that dates to the mid-20th century and has been used on fruit flies, screwworms, and codling moths. The technique has historically been hard to scale for mosquitoes, and the company says its automated rearing is meant to close that gap. An earlier Verily trial in Fresno, California, reported up to 95% suppression of the targeted Aedes aegypti population in treated areas during its 2018 season. The 32-million release proposed for Florida and California is the new step now before the EPA.

Suppression programs like this one generally require repeated releases to hold their gains; without follow-up, mosquito populations return to pre-release levels. A related Wolbachia method used by the World Mosquito Program reported an 89% drop in dengue in a trial in Niteroi, Brazil.

The technique is distinct from genetically engineered mosquitoes. A separate, UK-based company, Oxitec, has released genetically modified male Aedes aegypti in the Florida Keys and California’s Central Valley in recent years. Oxitec operates independently of Verily’s Debug Program.

A rancher’s skepticism

The plan was the subject of a wary conversation on The Kim Monson Show. Reading on air from a BGR report that called the release an idea which “on the surface” sounds “abominable” before arguing it “may actually be a good idea,” host Kim Monson asked her guest, sixth-generation rancher Trent Loos, what he made of it. He questioned both the purpose of the release and the authority behind it.

“I’m in the camp of I see no value in this whatsoever,” Loos said on the program. “How can a company decide they’re going to go do this in California and Florida? Who granted them the authority to do that?”

Loos pointed to the federal government’s own sterile-insect campaign as the precedent he had in mind: the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fight against the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating fly. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service disperses roughly 100 million sterile flies a week and announced in January 2026 that it was shifting that dispersal about 50 miles into Texas, along the border with Tamaulipas, Mexico, as the screwworm spread north. The sterile-male principle is the same one Verily proposes for mosquitoes. Loos argued the screwworm still threatens cattle along the southern border despite that long-running program, and he was skeptical that releasing sterile insects delivers a clear benefit.

He also reached back to the history of insect-borne disease control. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring” helped galvanize opposition to the pesticide DDT, which had been widely used against malaria-carrying mosquitoes; the EPA issued an order canceling most DDT uses in 1972. Loos credited the chemical with saving lives and lamented its loss.

Host Kim Monson pressed the same questions of oversight and unintended consequences. “How do we know they’re sterile also? And how do we know that they’re not carrying something else?” she asked.

Political reaction

The proposal has drawn fire beyond the show. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, posted on X: “Why does Google have 32 million mosquitos? Have we not learned our lesson with Kudzu, Sparrows, Black Birds, Asian Carp? Should I go on? Don’t mess with the balance of nature.”

What comes next

What happens next rests with the EPA, which is accepting public comments on Verily’s application through June 5 before deciding whether the release can proceed. The questions raised on the show, about who authorizes releasing millions of lab-reared insects into shared environments and what unintended consequences might follow, remain open as that deadline approaches.