Genetically modified mosquitoes aren’t being released from aircraft around the US
A group of planes from Cincinnati Warbirds fly over downtown before the Western & Southern WEBN Fireworks show, as part of the annual Labor Day Riverfest in Cincinnati, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023, in Cincinnati. Social media users are falsely claiming footage of black substances in the sky in California and Ohio shows the release of genetically modified mosquitoes, but both videos show smoke. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)
CLAIM: Videos of black substances in the sky in California and Ohio show the release of genetically modified mosquitoes that are part of an initiative backed by Bill Gates.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Neither video shows mosquitos, modified or otherwise. One clip shows smoke from a show at Disneyland Park in Anaheim. The other is footage of an airplane releasing smoke as part of an air show in Cincinnati. The only company in the U.S. that releases genetically modified mosquitoes does so from boxes on the ground and its work here is not funded by Gates.
THE FACTS: A week after social media users misrepresented a video of a helicopter releasing black smoke as a swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitoes funded by the Microsoft co-founder, the same false claim is being applied to similar footage in other states.
One video circulating in recent days shows two black rings in the sky, with text noting that the footage was taken in Anaheim and asking, in French, if mosquitoes are being released in California.
The video was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption,“Bill Gates at it again in California this time……” The post had more than 1,600 likes as of Tuesday.
But the video doesn’t show insects in the sky, it shows smoke from a Disneyland show.
Similar sights have been seen for years over the city, and Disneyland officials have explained that it is a side effect of the park’s nighttime “spectaculars.”
Officials confirmed to the AP that the smoke seen in the latest video is the same byproduct from flame effects used during shows above Disneyland Resort. The effects recently returned to the park’s “World of Color” show.
The other video circulating online shows three planes flying over Cincinnati, the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge in the background, as two of the aircrafts release a trail of a gray and black that lingers in the sky. An Instagram post shared the clip it with hashtags including “gmomosquitoes” and “billgates.”
However, this video also shows smoke rather than bugs.
The footage was originally posted on TikTok on Sept. 3, the same day the Cincinnati Warbirds squadron, a local historic military aircraft club, performed a flyover for both the city’s annual Riverfest event and an open house that honors veterans at Lunken Airport.
James Stitt, the president and commander of the Cincinnati Warbirds, told the AP the footage shows World War II-era C-45, a T-6 and L-17 planes flying in formation for the events.
He explained that the T-6 has a smoke system that is used in airshows. “It is produced by spraying mineral oil into the hot exhaust manifolds of the engine that vaporizes into a harmless cloud of smoke which does no harm to humans, wildlife, or the environment,” said Sitt.
A biotech company named Oxitec has released genetically modified mosquitoes into the U.S. as part of a disease-control initiative. However it does not do so from helicopters or airplanes, but rather from small boxes on the ground that allow the bugs to emerge gradually over several days, company spokesperson Jamie Lester previously told the AP.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped finance Oxitec’s work abroad, but the foundation has not funded its U.S. programs. Oxitec’s mosquitoes are males that have been modified to pass on a genetic change that renders any female offspring unable to survive, with the intent of curbing disease-transmitting mosquito populations.
Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency has not approved Oxitec to release its mosquitoes in Ohio or California’s Orange County, where Anaheim is located.
The agency has also approved another company, MosquitoMate, to release the mosquitoes in some states as part of efforts to control the insects’ population. However, these mosquitoes are not genetically modified, they carry a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia.
Regardless, MosquitoMate’s mosquitoes have not been released in Anaheim or Cincinnati, nor have they been released from an aircraft, according to Stephen Dobson, the company’s CEO and a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky.
These mosquitoes are normally stored in cylinders with mesh on both ends and released by hand, Dobson said. The company also did a field trial in central California where the mosquitos were released by a van.
Lawrence Reeves, an entomologist at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, previously told the AP that it would not be feasible to release mosquitoes from an aircraft in large quantities because the tiny bugs are too fragile.
Dobson noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program that releases other sterile insects from a plane, but agreed that it would be unrealistic to release mosquitoes this way in enough density to look like the smoke in the social media videos.
“For the mosquitoes to appear that darkly behind an airplane, I mean, it would literally be billions,” said Dobson.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.