atoll fern

AeLIMIN + Mosquito population control

Male mosquito release
  1. Tetiaroa Society Programs
  2. Conservation
  3. AeLIMIN + Mosquito population control

AeLIMIN + Mosquito population control

Our conservation efforts encompass monitoring, preservation, and restoration programs related to the marine and terrestrial biodiversity of tropical islands, as well as the preservation of their cultural heritage. Tetiaroa Society is supporting a project led by Institut Louis Malardé (Dr. Hervé Bossin) that explores innovative, more effective and environmentally safer methods for controlling mosquito populations.

Current Principal Investigators: Hervé Bossin, Jérôme Marie, Karine Wong-Sung
Current Affiliations: Institut Louis Malardé, Tetiaroa Society, The Brando
Project Dates: ongoing

Update : Tetiaroa AELIMIN+

The AeLIMIN+ program, led by the Louis Malardé Institute in partnership with the Tetiaroa Society and The Brando Hotel, aims to eliminate the Aedes polynesiensis and Aedes aegypti mosquito populations on certain motu of Tetiaroa, particularly Onetahi and Honuea. To achieve this, two innovative and environmentally friendly techniques are used: 

  • the Incompatible Insect Technique (T2I), which consists of releasing male Aedes polynesiensis mosquitoes each week, carrying a bacterium (Wolbachia) which makes them incompatible with local females;
  • the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), launched in 2025 in response to the appearance of nuisances linked to Aedes aegypti, which is based on the weekly release of males rendered sterile. 

The program also combines the reduction of larval breeding sites (especially around the hotel), the installation of traps on solar panels, and awareness-raising actions.

Summary of field activities

The interventions took place every week, from Monday to Friday, between April and June 2025, exclusively on Motu Onetahi. Activities included: 

  • regular entomological monitoring, including trap monitoring,
  • the installation of 24/7 active traps powered by electricity and solar panels.
  • the release of incompatible male mosquitoes (T2I) Aedes polynesiensis,
  • the release of sterile male mosquitoes (SIM) Aedes aegypti,
Image
Aelim+

Impacts & Preliminary Results

Field observations confirm the positive effect of the training and awareness-raising actions carried out in April 2025. 

Concrete efforts were observed from the hotel staff, including: 

  • storing equipment in a sheltered place,
  • the elimination of potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes,
  • better management of the immediate environment. 

These changes contribute to strengthening the effectiveness of the TIS and T2I techniques. In addition, demonstrations of sterile male mosquito releases were carried out among hotel guests, who showed interest and appreciation for this ecological and non-chemical strategy

The program will continue with: 

  • maintaining weekly releases of sterile and incompatible male mosquitoes,
  • an annual mission including a new inspection of larval breeding sites and training of staff in good practices. 

A scientific publication is in preparation to share the results obtained on the effectiveness of the incompatible insect technique (T2I) in a real operational context.

institute lotus malardé

ILM at a glance

Institut Louis Malardé (ILM) is French Polynesia’s public research institution. Based in Tahiti, ILM originates from an initiative launched in 1949 by William Albert Robinson, an American naval engineer, navigator and writer, in his attempt to fight lymphatic filariasis, a mosquito-borne disease which affected many Tahitian homes. Over the past 70 years, ILM has worked to improve and preserve the health, and well being of Pacific Island communities and their environment, with a focus on clinical diagnosis, non-communicable diseases (diabetes), food safety, mosquito vectors and the infectious diseases they transmit (dengue, Zika, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, etc).

Update : 2023

Over the past decade, Institut Louis Malardé has engaged in various field evaluation of innovative “Rear & Release” mosquito control strategies such as the Incompatible Insect Technique (release of Wolbachia-carrying male mosquitoes that sterilize their female counterpart in infested areas): from a limited-scale, feasibility trial on a motu of Raiatea to the largest field evaluation completed to date in French Polynesia on the atoll of Tetiaroa. An initial 12 months intervention was carried out in 2015-2016 which resulted in the successful suppression of Aedes polynesiensis on motu Onetahi (ca. 1 sq. km).

Preventative male mosquito releases have been performed since (except during the COVID crisis) to keep the mosquito nuisance at bay on the resort. Mosquito monitoring performed throughout the motu in 2023 indicates a successful suppression with only a few residual foci remaining.

mosquito trap

Planning by Tetiaroa Society and Institut Louis Malardé began in 2023 to prepare for a larger scale-deployment targeting mosquito elimination across the entire atoll in the years to come. This Tetiaroa Atoll Mosquito Elimination (TAME) project will contribute fundamental baseline data (including spatial mosquito population genomics analysis) and knowledge necessary to control mosquito populations at scale. Importantly, this will include outreach to the hotel guests and local communities including educational information about the challenges and opportunities of innovative mosquito control. The project will leverage ILM’s new INNOVENTOMO male mosquito factory, an infrastructure unique in France and the Pacific, developed for the mass-rearing and release of sterile male mosquitoes to further explore the feasibility and sustainability of island-wide mosquito elimination.

  • Prepping for emergent male nymphs Prepping for emergent male nymphs
  • Hervé checking the buckets Hervé checking the buckets
  • Loading male mosquito release buckets onto cart Loading male mosquito release buckets onto cart
  • Male mosquito release - photo: Denis Pinson Male mosquito release - photo: Denis Pinson
  • Male mosquito release - photo: Denis Pinson Male mosquito release - photo: Denis Pinson
  • Releasing the mosquitoes Releasing the mosquitoes
  • Ae polynesiensis incompatible male - photo: J. Marie Ae polynesiensis incompatible male - photo: J. Marie
  • President Obama releasing sterile male mosquitos with the Mosquito Control program run by Herve Bossin at Institute Louis Malarde. President Obama releasing sterile male mosquitos with the Mosquito Control program run by Herve Bossin at Institute Louis Malarde.

The burden of mosquito vectors

Mosquito nuisance and mosquito-borne diseases severely affect communities globally overwhelming health systems, impacting tourism and the sustainability of tropical (island) economies and beyond. The World Health Organization’s strategic recommendations to reduce this burden resides in effective, locally adapted and sustainable vector control, increased by basic and operational research, and innovation. Wolbachia-based biocontrol for Aedes mosquitoes is an example of such innovation. Wolbachia are naturally occurring symbiotic bacteria that are present in many insects, including some mosquito species that commonly bite humans. Wolbachia-carrying male mosquitoes effectively sterilize mated female mosquitoes, which produce eggs that fail to develop and hatch. Wolbachia’s natural properties thus have the ability to suppress and potentially eliminate targeted mosquito vector populations. 

A scalable project that can have a global impact 

Dr. Hervé Bossin, head of the Medical Entomology Laboratory at Institut Louis Malardé recently demonstrated the efficacy and sustainability of this innovative approach in Tetiaroa, with sustained releases of Aedes polynesiensis Wolbachia male mosquitoes resulting in elimination of the mosquito nuisance and the associated risk of disease transmission. Through this successful public-private partnership also involving Tetiaroa Society, The Brando has become the world’s first resort to benefit from an essentially mosquito-free environment without the spraying of nasty insecticides. Stemming from this success, the French national and French Polynesian authorities are jointly investing in innovative mosquito control technologies with the construction a male mosquito production facility, the 1st of its kind in France and the Pacific. This facility will allow Institut Louis Malardé to scale up field interventions from releasing a few hundred thousand to several millions of Wolbachia male mosquitoes per week. ILM’s vision is to eliminate mosquito vectors of diseases from entire islands over the coming years. ILM’s innovative mosquito program has greatly improved the well-being of the Brando's guests and employees, and is proving to be an important contribution to the sustainability of our planet. This program is a great example of the role Tetiaroa can play in implementing and testing scalable projects that can have a global impact.

 

Further Reading:
Document
Rapport-Annuel-2023-ILM.pdf1.88 MB