Mosquitos may find it harder to practice safe sex in Australia.
According to The Guardian, a new study published by the journal Nature Communications explores the possibility of controlling the mosquito population with genetically engineered males that produce poison and kill the females that they mate with.
“Ideally, what we’re trying to achieve is: a male mosquito mates with a female and then she dies immediately,” says the study’s lead author, Sam Beach.
Researchers are hoping the method could reduce the threat of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue fever and Zika.
“With this approach, we can immediately reduce the size of the female mosquito population and then hopefully get a really rapid reduction in the spread of these vector-borne illnesses,” Beach says.
We imagine that this might do a number on the mosquito dating scene, though. Hopefully mosqui-Tinder doesn’t have to shut down.
Bumble should be OK, though, since it’s mostly for bees.