The atmosphere inside the laboratory on the outskirts of Vienna is literally buzzing with armies of male mosquitoes locked up inside net-covered boxes. Their sole mission in life: stop females from breeding, reports AFP.
Better known for keeping a close watch on countries’ nuclear activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has joined the fight against Aedes aegypti—the notorious mosquito responsible for spreading dengue, chikungunya and now the Zika virus.
Experts from around the globe have been working strenuously in the IAEA’s tightly-secured research facility in Seibersdorf, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the Austrian capital, to perfect something called the sterile insect technique, or SIT.
The clue’s in the name: male mosquitoes have their private parts zapped with a radioactive source before being released into nature to mate with wild females, which, as a result, will lay infertile eggs.
The aim is to gradually reduce, if not suppress, their population.  ”Basically it’s family planning for insects,” said Jorge Hendrichs, director of the IAEA’s insect pest control unit.