Genetic control methods of mosquito vectors of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika are becoming increasingly popular due to the limitations of other techniques such as the use of insecticides. The sterile insect technique is an effective genetic control method to manage insect populations. However, it is crucial to release sterile mosquitoes by air to ensure homogeneous coverage, especially in large areas. Here, we report a fully automated adult mosquito release system operated from an uncrewed aerial vehicle or drone. Our system, developed and tested in Brazil, enabled a homogeneous dispersal of sterile male Aedes aegypti while maintaining their quality, leading to a homogeneous sterile-to-wild male ratio due to their aggregation in the same sites. Our results indicate that the released sterile males were able to compete with the wild males in mating with the wild females; thus, the sterile males were able to induce sterility in the native female population. The use of drones to implement the sterile insect technique will lead to improvements in areal coverage and savings in operational costs due to the requirement of fewer release sites and field staff.

由于诸如杀虫剂之类的其他技术的局限性，疟疾，登革热，黄热病和寨卡病毒的蚊媒的遗传控制方法正变得越来越普遍。昆虫不育技术是管理昆虫种群的有效遗传控制方法。但是，至关重要的是要通过空气释放无菌蚊子，以确保均匀覆盖，尤其是在大面积地区。在这里，我们报告了一种由无人驾驶飞行器或无人机操作的全自动成人灭蚊系统。我们在巴西开发和测试的系统可以使无菌雄性埃及伊蚊均匀分布同时保持它们的质量，由于它们聚集在同一部位，导致雄性不育与野生的比率相同。我们的结果表明，释放的不育雄性能够与野生雄性竞争，与野生雌性交配。因此，不育的雄性能够在天然雌性种群中诱发不育。由于需要较少的释放地点和现场工作人员，使用无人机实施无菌昆虫技术将导致区域覆盖范围的改善并节省运营成本。