* At least these mosquitoes should help eradicate a dangerous disease. They'd better.

Nobody likes mosquitoes. If anything, there are too many of them in the world.

Then why is this Brazilian facility farming endless swarms of mosquitoes?

You read that right. A new mosquito farm in Brazil just recently opened its doors and is now working at full capacity.

This isn't just any mosquito farm, either. This is the world's largest mosquito-growing operation, capable of churning out millions upon millions in buzzing, bloodsucking fiends a week.

They're not doing it to torment people with more mosquito bites, though. This bizarre plant is part of Brazil's strategy in a fight against dengue fever.

This potentially life-threatening disease is spread through mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus. However, the insects reared at the Brazilian facility carry bacteria that kills dengue on virus on contact.

These mosquitoes will pass the bacteria down to their descendants. According to the Brazilian plan, once released into the wild, the mosquitoes will mate with unmodified ones and eventually lower the chance of the dengue virus surviving.

They will still bite you, though.

One Disgusting Factory

The brand-spanking new mosquito farm is located in the city of Campinas, in the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo. It's owned and operated by the British biotech company Oxitech, which specializes in pest control solutions featuring biologically modified insects.

Oxitech's new Campinas factory is a huge one to boot. It has 14,000 square feet of space in which the workers can grow hordes of bloodsuckers.

And when we say hordes, we mean it. The farm has the capacity of churning out 200 million mosquitoes every single week.

In reality, however, not all larvae survive, so the realistic output is only around 190 million mosquitoes each week. Oh, what a tragedy.

The Campinas facility is filled with thousands upon thousands of water-filled trays hosting Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae. They're kept at a cozy, warm temperature to allow them to develop quickly into adult mosquitoes.

Once the bugs reach adulthood, they're segregated by sex, not just to prevent out-of-control breeding but also to make feeding them easier. In case you didn't know, male and female mosquitoes have completely different diets.

Male mosquitoes are actually harmless and useful pollinators, as they feed solely on plant nectar. As such, they receive their favorite treat -- sugar water soaked into soft cotton balls.

Females, though, demand fresh blood. Their crimson juice is sourced from animals and fed to them through blood bags mimicking human skin.

Gross.

Bioweapon Against Bioweapon

However, the Campinas mosquito factory doesn't exist just to send shivers down your spine. It may turn out to be a vital tool in Brazil's effort to control dengue fever.

The disease outbreaks have been getting worse every year, with 2024 being the worst on record. The fever is spread primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry the dengue virus.

The Campinas mosquitoes, however, have received a special inoculation. They're infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which are dengue viruses' natural enemies. These bacteria prevent the virus from developing and kills any that try to infect the mosquitoes.

After Oxitech's modified mosquito swarms get released into the wild, they should help control dengue fever in two ways. First, when they inevitably bite people, they won't have any virus to transmit, which is intended to cut back on infection rates.

Second, once the mosquitoes breed -- whether with modified or unmodified partners -- they will pass the Wolbachia bacteria to their offspring. Consequently, there should be fever mosquitoes capable to carrying the dengue virus with each generation.

Ideally, this would eradicate dengue altogether. However, life always finds a way and the virus will probably survive, but infection rates will hopefully plummet.

Strange but Working Solution

Oxitech's mosquito-growing strategy might sound strange, but it's a tried-and-true method to control disease. Similar efforts have been carried out before, but this is largest-scale mosquito-farming project ever.

Another example of a similar tactic came from the U.S. earlier this year. The flesh-eating New World screwworm fly is making headways through Central America and into Texas.

The U.S. is prepared to fight back against the fly invasion in the most American way possible. We will bomb the flies -- with billions of other flies.

These air-dropped buzzers, however, are sterile. As New World screwworm flies mate only once, the plan is to essentialy c*** block them out of existence.

Hey, it has worked before. Well, mostly, since the flies bounced back.

If you'd like to read more about gross insect-growing facilities, why not take a look at China's cockroach farms?