  Recently, the RIDL-SIT technology has been field-tested for control of Aedes
aegypti. The technique consists of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes
carrying a "lethal gene". In 2016 the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the
Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) recommend to their constituent
countries to test the new technologies proposed to control Aedes aegypti
populations. However, issues concerning effectiveness and ecological impact
have not been thoroughly studied so far. In order to study these issues, we
develop an ecological model compatible with the information available as of
2016. It presents an interdependent dynamics of mosquito populations and food
in an homogeneous setting. Mosquito populations are described in an stochastic
compartmental setup in terms of reaction norms depending on the available food
in the environment. The development of the model allows us to indicate some
critical biological knowledge that is missing and could (should) be produced.
Hybridisation levels, release numbers during and after intervention and
population recovery time after the intervention as a function of intervention
duration and target are calculated under different hypotheses with regard to
the fitness of hybrids and compared with two field studies of actual
interventions. The minimal model should serve as a basis for detailed models
when the necessary information to construct them is produced. For the time
being, the model shows that nature will not clean the non-lethal introgressed
genes.
