And the lucky residents of Kendall may be the winners
Zika may be out of the daily headlines and daily heads — for now. Because experts have already said that the virus 
could, and very likely will come back as mosquito season returns to South Florida this summer.
And, of course, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who had cut mosquito control funding in previous years and was caught unprepared for the 2016 crisis — has a plan this time: He wants to drop thousands, perhaps millions of genetically modified mosquitos to mate with the female Aedes aegypti species that spreads Zika — as well as Dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya — and eventually kill them off, producing offspring that die before they reproduce.
That’s right. Gimenez, the former firefighters, wants to fight fire with fire. He met with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine about it earlier this month and pitched the proposal. Also there: Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak, Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales, Dr. Lilian Rivera, the head of the Miami-Dade Department of Health, and a few other municipal staffers. The topic: What everyone is doing to prepare for mosquito season.
Miami-Dade was scarred by the Zika bite last year that seemingly ate into our tourist dollars after Wynwood became ground zero, the home to the first locally-transmitted case and, eventually, dozens bite victims, although the disease is generally undetected and is feared to cause encephelitis in the unborn children of pregnant women. Wynwood was declared a Zika zone by Gov. Rick Scott and put on a travel advisory by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Later, Miami Beach became a secondary zone with 19 cases.
This is where Gimenez asked Miami and Miami Beach to host the mutant mosquitoes.
It isn’t so far-fetched. The technology of GMO mosquitoes, as they are called, 
has been used in Panama, the Cayman Islands and Brazil, where they have reportedly reduced the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitos by 90 percent. The World Health Organization has concluded that GE mosquitoes, as they are also called, “warrant time-limited pilot deployment, accompanied by rigorous monitoring and evaluation.”
Key words: rigours monitoring and evaluation.
Because these are still mosquitos, after all. They may not bite, because only females bite, but they still buzz. They still fly around your face and bug you. We don’t know what other diseases they may carry and pass on to the females, who do bite. Or to dogs and cats. We don’t know how strong they can get. We don’t know how resistant they are and how they may further mutate or how they may affect other populations, like birds or reptiles or other bugs. Could we be creating a super-resistant mosquito species? There’s been relatively little research or study.
And Gimenez wants to do the trials here.
While he says they will all be male mutant mosquitos, it’s kinda difficult to differentiate between males and females when you are sorting millions of them, and trials in Costa Rica and elsewhere have shown that about .03 % of the mutant mosquitos that are released are female.
Read related story: Zika politics — State House candidate has repellant wristbands
That might sound like a small number. But if 3 million mutant mosquitos are released, that means 900 of them could be female. And what happens when a female mosquito with altered DNA bites a human?
Do you know how they genetically alter these mosquitos to carry a “genetic kill switch,” so the offspring (hopefully?) inherits the lethal gene and cannot survive? Why, they insert “protein fragments” from the herpes virus, E. coli bacteria, coral and cabbage into the insects. Did we mention E. coli?
So what happens if one of the 900 females bites one of us? Can they pass their mutant DNA into our bloodstream?
It’s a controversial solution because there are still so many unknowns. Residents in the Florida Keys collected 160,000 signatures against releasing the mosquitoes in Monroe County, even though voters approved the deployment — as a Zika fighting tactic — in a referendum vote last November. Curiously enough, the Keys hasn’t had a single case of Zika reported. And they haven’t had a Dengue fever report since 2010. Ladra doesn’t know what voters were thinking.
But at least they were given the choice in Monroe County. Gimenez won’t do that here. Because this pilot program 
likely comes with some federal or state grant and its his way of funding mosquito control this year, instead of adding inspectors and staff to code enforcement to cite people who keep dirty, infested pools as breeding grounds. In fact, Oxitec has provided the mutant mosquitoes to some cities for free so they get to do their trials. So maybe he’ll use the grant money someplace else. This science may be unproven and there could be unknown risks, but Gimenez doesn’t want to increase funding for code enforcement or add mosquito control inspectors when, you know, that doesn’t help his contributors or the people on his friends and family plan. And this will make it sound like he is doing something substantial, rather than just taking a stab in the dark.
Or a bite.
The mutant mosquitoes also still swarm in dark, ominous clouds — and that is not an attractive postcard picture for tourists. That’s the main reason Miami Mayor Regalado said nananina when Gimenez offered to try a pilot program in the Wynwood area that was first hit with last year’s outbreak.
“After what happened in Wynwood last year, if we start soltando mosquitos ahi, those people will suffer again. 
They’ve had enough,” Regalado told Ladra. The clouds of mosquitos and the mere perception that an infestation — even of mutant mosquitos — could have on tourism is not worth it, the Miami mayor said.
“We had the experience that Wynwood was crucified publicly,” Regalado said, referring to the effect the multiple cases reported in that Miami neighborhood had. “If they suddenly release all of these mosquitos that are genetically altered, it will cause a doubt for people who want to go to the Wynwood area.
“It will have a chilling effect to see a cloud of millions of mosquitos buzzing around.”
Regalado doesn’t think it’s a good idea anywhere. “It will create more anxiety in the county. The perception will be that we have more mosquitos,” he said. “They should be looking at ways to spray without using toxins like Naled. We need to focus on code enforcement and eliminate the receptacles and dirty pools that breed mosquitos.”
In Miami, the city has placed 200 electric traps in Wynwood, Little Haiti, Little Havana, Liberty City and the Design District, Regaldo said. They were donated from a company in Texas and “they have been working to reduce the population of mosquitos.”
After Regalado said no thanks to the mutant mosquito army, Gimenez apparently turned to the Beach, wanting to dump the little buggers there.
Read related story: Joe Garcia and Carlos Curbelo agree on Zika
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” said City Manager Jimmy Morales, correcting Ladra, but also likely repeating what he said at the meeting with Gimenez. “What he said was that the EPA is willing to authorize a test and that the place that makes the most sense is in Miami Beach.”
Morales, who is very diplomatic, said he didn’t think it would be welcomed in Miami Beach, however, where residents complained loudly about the Naled that was sprayed to contain the small Zika outbreak there. “The same group that didn’t like the Naled, don’t like the [genetically modified] mosquitos.
“If there was any decision to do anything, we would have to bring it before the commission at a public hearing,” Morales told Ladra. And, he said between the lines, that’s not gonna happen.
“I don’t see that as a likely decision at all. Neither does the mayor.”
Gimenez spokesman and, now, senior advisor Michael Hernandez did not return several phone calls and text messages from Ladra asking for clarification. But both Regalado and Morales, a former county commissioner who once ran for mayor, confirmed the meeting took place and that both cities were offered the “pilot program.”
After Gimenez was rejected a second time, Regalado said, the Miami-Dade mayor announced that the county would dump the mutant mosquitos somewhere far away from the two cities — probably from any cities, so he doesn’t get the same kind of resistance.
“The only option is South,” Regalado said.
Are you listening Commissioner Joe Martinez? Because Ladra thinks this means your people. Far away and with no cities? That sounds like West Kendall to me.
Carlos Gimenez wants to dump mutant mosquitos on us added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
