It’s an innovative way to control the D.C. area’s mosquito population. For the first time, a Silver Spring, Maryland, business is releasing hundreds of thousands of infected mosquitoes this summer.

“We’re releasing 600,000 in total within the DMV for 2026,” said Todd Montgomery, owner of Bee Safe Mosquito Control. “Hopefully, we’ll increase that for next season.”

They’re releasing male mosquitoes infected with the gut bacteria Wolbachia, called ZAP males. Males don’t bite, and when a ZAP male mates with a female mosquito, she will no longer be able to produce offspring.

“When they mate with a female, they actually cause that female to then become infertile for the rest of her life,” Montgomery said. “She’s going around laying eggs that will never hatch.”

The program targets the aggressive Asian Tiger Mosquito, one of the most common species in the D.C. area, which can transmit Dengue Fever, Zika and Yellow Fever.

ZAP males are shipped from Kentucky-based MosquitoMate, which has nationwide EPA approval to use the mosquitoes as a biopesticide. The technology is relatively new in the United States but has already proven successful internationally.

“In parts of South America, they have reduced Dengue [fever] cases by over 98% using Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes,” Montgomery said. “The introduction of males in order to control the population is a technique that has been tried time and time again. And it’s worked really well against many species.”

Google’s parent company Alphabet has plans to release up to 32 million Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in California and Florida as part of its Debug program. Bee Safe Mosquito Control is the only company offering this service in our region.

“We’re definitely the first in the DMV to do this,” he said. “We’re a tiny, small business that started four years ago. So it’s super cool that we’re at the forefront of it.”

The company began releasing ZAP males in early June and will continue through September. The service costs about $1,000 and the business has already sold out for the season.

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