The slightly pungent smell arouses visitors when they enter the Terratis laboratory, a 220 square meter hangar located west of Montpellier. Behind the windows of the first room, you can catch a glimpse of an unusual breeding process: around one million mosquitoes frolic in around fifty very fine mesh cages. However, there were some who managed to escape, including women, who hurriedly bit their ankles without wearing a cover. Its small size and subtle black and white stripes leave no doubt: it is Aedes albopictustiger mosquito.
On the walls of the cage, several red spots indicate the routine blood intake given to the female to mature her eggs. The latter, small black dots attached to pieces of paper soaked in standing water at the bottom of the cage, were carefully collected with a brush. They will be used to produce sterile male mosquitoes, which will then be released in the city. When mating with wild female mosquitoes, their sperm deformed by irradiation produces non-viable embryos, potentially reducing the overall tiger mosquito population.
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