--- title: All Male Mosquitos Could Wipe Out Malaria description: Scientists have figured out a way to modify malaria-carrying mosquitos so they only produce males canonical: https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-10T15:30:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:19:23.887Z article:section: Health og:title: All Male Mosquitos Could Wipe Out Malaria og:description: Scientists have figured out a way to modify malaria-carrying mosquitos so they only produce males og:url: https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f427177c407def6/698696e0d0b6f2a527304c96/ga10344-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GA10344 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: All Male Mosquitos Could Wipe Out Malaria twitter:description: Scientists have figured out a way to modify malaria-carrying mosquitos so they only produce males twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f427177c407def6/698696e0d0b6f2a527304c96/ga10344-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Malaria by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 10, 2014 3:30 PM UTC  Mosquito (Culicidae sp) feeding, close-up Mosquito (Culicidae sp) feeding, close-upGeoff du Feu—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 10, 2014 3:30 PM UTC After six years of trying, scientists have discovered a way to genetically modify mosquitoes so they produce sperm that will only conceive male offspring. Female mosquitoes are the ones who bite people and pass along malaria, so scientists think if they can significantly lower the number of female mosquitoes the rate of malaria will also go down. In their [research](http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4977.epdf?shared%5Faccess%5Ftoken=b2bFzofv5d-xiFgNkbqjhdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PPXflGKWqQwGD0eczj2ypiS6hXYIGgaXOpspcVscMwe-EPHYTxOj-QFfpQkgebjlbwIaEFWvCC9q7RQRyMBNqXxh6dw6FTAJpXVleb9I8xRQ%3D%3D) published in the journal _Nature Communications_, the researchers created a modified strain of mosquitoes that produced 95% male offspring. When they introduced the strain to a five caged wild mosquito populations, the modified pests eradicated entire mosquito populations in four of them. There were too few females for the populations to survive. The researchers hope that this same scenario could happen in the wild, and malaria-carrying mosquitoes could die off. Their findings are important because the scientists are the first to interfere in the sex ratios of mosquitoes, and their strategy could be successful in eliminating malaria, which remains a fatal disease in some sub-Saharan regions in Africa. Malaria prevention methods worldwide have brought down malaria mortality rates by 42%, but scientists are concerned over insecticide-resistant mosquitoes that pass along drug resistant malaria. “The research is still in its early days, but I am really hopeful that this new approach could ultimately lead to a cheap and effective way to eliminate malaria from entire regions. Our goal is to enable people to live freely without the threat of this deadly disease,” said study author Roberto Galizi from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London [in a statement](http://www.eurekalert.org/emb%5Freleases/2014-06/icl-swo060914.php). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/"},"headline":"Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Malaria","datePublished":"2014-06-10T15:30:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:19:23.887Z","description":"Scientists have figured out a way to modify malaria-carrying mosquitos so they only produce males","url":"https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","Malaria","mosquitos"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f427177c407def6/698696e0d0b6f2a527304c96/ga10344-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9f427177c407def6/698696e0d0b6f2a527304c96/ga10344-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GA10344","caption":"GA10344","creditText":"Geoff du Feu—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2852568/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-could-wipe-out-malaria/","name":"Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Malaria"}}]}] ```