Don’t Let the Bugs Bite
Can genetic engineering defeat diseases spread by insects?
By Ben Harder
Celia Cordón-Rosales wants to build a ghost town. A dozen small thatch and adobe huts would stand in several clusters. A few pigs would occupy nearby pens, insects would buzz to and fro, and bacteria would live out unremarkable lives. But the mock hamlet would be devoid of human residents. It would also be enclosed in nets of mesh so fine that nothing as large as a bug could escape. And a ditch would encircle everything to collect any runoff water that might permit microorganisms to leave the site.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2004/08/4296.jpg?resize=112%2C150&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2004/08/4297.jpg?resize=150%2C124&ssl=1)
All in the name of entomology.