Decisions to release genetically modified (GM) insects into the wild should be made more openly and based on better science, according to a review. The authors say that, so far, the environmental impact assessments for such releases have been “scientifically deficient”, and that without timely, publically available risk assessments the public may turn hostile to the GM mosquitoes before “it is possible to determine what value they possess”. The review, by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, comes on the heels of a heated debate about the safety of releasing GM mosquitoes into the wild.