###### Abstract  
In recent years, several countries have developed the use of sterile insect techniques (SIT) to fight against mosquitoes that transmit diseases. From a technical and economic point of view, the use of drones in the aerial release of sterile mosquitoes leads to important improvements in aerial coverage and savings in operational costs due to the requirement of fewer release sites and field staff. However, these operations are under the European drone regulation, one of the most advanced in the world. The main contribution and novelty of this paper with respect to previous work is the analysis of the SIT application with drones under the European risk-based regulation in two scenarios: urban and rural areas. The specific operations risk assessment (SORA) methodology has been applied to assess the risk of drone operations in these scenarios. The paper presents the operational requirements for aerial release of mosquitoes with drones along with the regulatory considerations that must be applied. Finally, an overview of the conditions in operation that could relax risks and mitigation measures is also discussed. mosquitoes' control; drones; drone regulation; unmanned aircraft systems (UAS); U-space; SORA methodology; sterile insect technique (SIT) +
Footnote †: journal: Applied  
0000-0001-6000-00001-60000-00001-60000-00001-60000-0001-60000-0000  
and Zika. In [1] the main, mosquito-borne diseases are shown with a summary of statistics and places where mosquito pest control is essential. Different techniques have been used in recent years to control mosquitoes that transmit human disease. Most mosquito control techniques require the use of insecticides with high costs associated in terms of personnel and time. Furthermore, the presence of these toxic products has a large impact not only on human health but also on the environment. Concerns about resistance to pyrethroids in recent years [2] have led researchers to explore alternative solutions, such as the sterile insect technique (SIT) for mosquito control. The release of sterile insects to contain and suppress [3] mosquito populations was proposed by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2020) [4]. This technology has been used for a long time, for example, in 1980 in a program in El Salvador [5], but the required logistics have limited its applicability in practice. The use of drones is seen as a promising tool for the release of sterile insect populations into targeted environments. Furthermore, these releases are carried out repeatedly over a certain period. The ease of use of drones and their ability to access any environment from the air make them a viable system in this mosquito control technique. Drones may provide a means of releasing sterile mosquitoes over large areas due to the ability of drones to travel long distances in short periods of time. A standard DJI Phantom 4 type light drone can fly for 25 min, being able to travel up to 25 km. Furthermore, one of the main advantages of using drones is that they can reach inaccessible areas where humans cannot. There are some interesting works on this aspect. In [6] a fully automated system for releasing adult mosquitoes with a DJI M600 drone in a region of Brazil was reported. The system enabled a homogeneous dispersal of sterile male _Aedes aegypti_ while maintaining their quality, leading to a homogeneous sterile-to-wild male ratio due to their aggregation at the same sites. This article concluded that the use of drones for the release of sterile mosquitoes leads to important improvements in aerial coverage and savings in operational costs due to the requirement of fewer release sites and field staff. One of the first works in this direction, dating back to 2017, can be found in [7] when the WeRobotics organization modified a DJI Matrice 600 drone to integrate a sterile mosquito release mechanism. The effect of storage conditions on the survival of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes during transport was studied in [8].