The project aims at exploring the idea of boosting the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) through the specific transmission of bio pesticides from sterile males to their wild female counterparts.
The studied groups correspond to mosquitoes, tsetse and fruit flies.
We want to improve the « sterile insect technique » which consists in mass rearing male insects, sterilizing them by radiation and releasing them into the environment, where they compete with their wild, non-sterile counterparts to reproduce.
The « boosted sterile insect technique » consists in ensuring that the males also transmit biopesticides to the females that kill them or their progeny.
It is mandatory to develop alternative methods to insecticides that raise concern for their toxicity for health and environment, particularly against mosquito vectors in the context of Zika virus epidemics.