This is the reason why scientists have dropped more than 40 million mosquitoes in Hawaii

Hawaii’s native songbirds are in serious trouble, and the unlikely hero in their story is the mosquito... or at least, a modified version of one.

Why have mosquitos been released?

In an effort to stop avian malaria from wiping out the islands’ surviving honeycreepers, scientists have released more than 40 million lab-bred male mosquitoes across Maui and Kauai since late 2023. These males don’t bite or spread disease. Instead, they carry a naturally occurring bacterium, Wolbachia, which scrambles reproduction. When they mate with wild females, the resulting eggs don’t hatch, gradually cutting down the mosquito population.

Why the urgency? Avian malaria, carried by invasive southern house mosquitoes, is killing birds like the crimson ‘I‘iwi and the critically endangered kiwikiu after a single bite. As climate change warms Hawaii’s high-elevation forests – once too cool for mosquitoes – the last strongholds of these birds are disappearing fast.

What do the mosquitos do?

The project, coordinated by a group called Birds, Not Mosquitoes, is using a mix of helicopter drops and drones. Helicopters can carry up to 250,000 mosquitoes at once. But new eight-foot drones, though smaller in payload, are cheaper, safer, and better suited to Hawaii’s unpredictable weather. Each flight drops biodegradable pods – paper tubes packed with about 1,000 male mosquitoes – onto the forest floor, where the insects emerge alive and ready to do... nothing. That’s the point.

This method, known as the “incompatible insect technique,” has been used in places like California and Mexico to protect humans. But in Hawaii, it’s all about the birds.

“There’s no second chance with extinction,” one conservationist said. Stopping the mosquitoes might be the last shot at saving what’s left of Hawaii’s once-vibrant birdlife.

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