Mosquitoes have long been feared as potent carriers of fatal diseases across the world, and now an unusual factory in Colombia is doing something with them that many would think belongs only in science fiction movies.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is funding a project to mass-produce genetically modified mosquitoes and release them into the wild.
Highlights
- Bill Gates-backed scientists in Colombia are breeding millions of genetically engineered mosquitoes.
- These mosquitoes are released into the wild to mate with local mosquito populations and multiply.
- Gates’s mosquito project drew backlash from netizens who cited his mention in the Epstein files.
Netizens have taken unrestrained aim at the billionaire, who is also known as a philanthropist and humanitarian, over the effort.
“He was in the Epstein files. Such experiments are expected of him,” one wrote.
Bill Gates’ mosquito factory has gained major attention in recent days
Image credits: Getty/WPA Pool
Bill Gates’ mosquito factory is a two-story brick building located in Medellín, Colombia, where scientists work long hours in a carefully controlled environment to breed 30-40 million mosquitoes per week.
They tend to the insects’ every need as they grow from larvae to pupae to adults. They are fed generous helpings of fishmeal, sugar, and, of course, blood, which is sourced from expired stocks at blood banks.
The mosquitoes are engineered to carry a bacterium called Wolbachia.
This bacterium, however, is dangerous to mosquitoes themselves, not humans, as it prevents them from transmitting viruses such as dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and yellow fever.
Image credits: Unsplash/Rapha Wilde
The mosquitoes are released into nature to mate with other mosquitoes and spread the bacteria.
When male mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia mate with a female mosquito that does not carry the bacteria, the eggs usually fail to hatch.
However, when Wolbachia-infected females mate, regardless of whether the male carries the bacterium, their offspring inherit Wolbachia naturally from the mother.
Scientists therefore focus on releasing enough Wolbachia-carrying females, as they play a key role in establishing the bacteria permanently within mosquito communities and reducing the insects’ ability to transmit viruses to humans.
Image credits: Getty/Dave Thompson
Gates’s mosquito factory releases Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes in two ways.
The first involves placing mosquito eggs in a small gelatin capsule, which is given to residents to drop into water to hatch. This method also allows the transportation of mosquitoes over long distances.
Another way to release Wolbachia mosquitoes is to let them fly as adults from the backs of motorbikes circling the city.
According to a study cited by Gates on his blog, dengue cases in Medellín have declined by 89 percent since Wolbachia mosquitoes started being released in 2015.
A nonprofit is leading Gates’s Wolbachia effort with significant community acceptance rates
Image credits: Gates Notes
The World Mosquito Program (WMP), owned by Australia’s Monash University, is behind Gates’s mosquito factory.
The community of Paris in the Bello neighborhood of Medellín welcomed Colombia’s first release of Wolbachia in May 2015, according to the nonprofit’s website.
In 2017, the project expanded into the larger Bello municipality.
While the public acceptance rate in Bello (Paris) was recorded at 93.5 percent, the rate for the wider Bello municipality was 90 percent.
The nonprofit’s website claims it has reached 4,490,000 people across 183 square kilometers since its beginning.
Image credits: Gates Notes
As of 2026, WMP works in 15 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, and Vanuatu, to release mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria.
The effort aims to spread Wolbachia among the global Aedes aegypti mosquito population, a tropical species that carries numerous mosquito-borne diseases, excluding Malaria.
Malaria is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, which are outside the focus of the Wolbachia program.
Image credits: Gates Notes
The World Mosquito Program is also experimenting with releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes using drones.
Netizens shared their own experiences with dengue while appreciating the Gates-WMP effort
Image credits: Gates Notes
“F*** dengue. I got dengue from taking a five-minute walk outside. It made me bedridden for an entire week because sitting up or attempting to eat anything would give me nausea,” one wrote, further sharing that the disease made them lose 10 percent of their body weight.
“I lived through a few family members d**ng from dengue fever in the last two years, plus, working in the healthcare industry, I also saw dozens of my patients d**ng from it,” another noted.
Image credits: Gates Notes
“Anything that we can do to limit this plague is a good thing,” expressed a third.
Image credits: PMI
One person cynical about Gates’s intentions reminded people that he spoke about slowing global population growth in his 2010 TED Talk, and therefore, anything he spreads should not be accepted.
“If people actually believe he is doing good, I’ve got a bridge to sell them,” another said.
The number of dengue cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) increased from 505,430 in 2000 to 14.6 million in 2024.
Between January and July 2025, over 4 million cases and more than 3,000 deaths were reported to the WHO from 97 countries.
"Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes? Sounds like a villain origin story," a netizen commented
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