Australian Scientists Wipe Out 80% of Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes The experiment was conducted in trial locations across north Queensland. It targeted Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread deadly diseases such as dengue fever and Zika. Researchers bred almost 20 million mosquitoes, infecting males with bacteria that made them sterile. They released over three million of them in three towns on the Cassowary Coast. The sterile male mosquitoes didn't bite or spread disease. When they mated with wild females, the resulting eggs didn't hatch, and the population crashed. The successful experiment offers a potential new solution against diseases which infect millions every year.