The world’s most invasive mosquito has been “nearly eliminated” from two islands in a river in southern China, according to study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.

Xi Zhiyong, a medical entomologist at Michigan State University, led a team of researchers who used a bacterium to sterilize the Asian tiger mosquitos — which can transmit the Zika virus, dengue, and yellow fever — and effectively eradicate them from the two islands. According to the World Health Organization, sustained mosquito population control is an important step toward preventing outbreaks of these diseases.

In their study, the researchers infected laboratory mosquitos with a bacterium called Wolbachia. When male Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes mated with uninfected females, no offspring were produced, causing the overall Asian tiger mosquito population to steadily decline.

During peak breeding seasons in 2016 and 2017, the researchers released over 160,000 Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes per hectare per week in residential areas of two islands located in a river near Guangzhou — the Chinese city with the highest rate of dengue. The team then tracked population decline in adult female mosquitoes, since males do not transmit disease. According to the study, the population of wild adult females fell by 83% in 2016 and 94% in 2017. (Image: VCG)