Developing radiation-based sterile insect technique (SIT) for controlling Aedes aegypti: identification of a sterilizing dose.

Our work suggests that an ionizing radiation dose of 50 Gy should be used for future development of operational SIT in our program area because at this dose males are 99% sterile while maintaining mating competitiveness against unirradiated males. Furthermore, females that might be accidentally released with sterile males due to errors in sex sorting are also sterile and less likely to blood feed than unirradiated females at our 50 Gy dose.