**3.6 Sterile insect technique (SIT)**

General models from the middle of the twentieth century had already predicted the potential of releasing sterile male releases to suppress insect populations [88]. This approach known as the sterile insect technique (SIT) has been originally accomplished by irradiation of mosquitoes. Sterile animals have been released, mostly by preliminary investigations, in several locations around the world with varied success, as previously discussed [89]. While claims of reduced competitive rates of irradiated mosquitoes are still a matter of debate [90], the biggest issues facing SIT seem to rely on the scalability and sustainability of such efforts [89]. An alternative approach has been the release of transgenic-induced sterile mosquitoes. Still, the logistic challenges of such practices remain a major challenge for field implementations in large geographic areas, with wild-type mosquito populations rapidly returning after release interruption [91]. At present, the development of efficient and flexible gene drive techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas9, remains a promising approach to the development of efficient cost-effective SIT implementations independent of continuous mosquito release [92].
