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Alwayssunnyinarizona t1_ivfszj8 wrote

Reply to comment by bossonhigs in English company Oxitec has released a simple, easy to distribute commercial product they say cuts Dengue Fever spreading mosquito populations by 96%. By just adding water, genetically modified mosquito eggs mature into males whose sperm cannot result in viable female larvae. by lughnasadh

Since the 1950s, the United States has made efforts to eliminate Cochliomyia hominivorax, the fly responsible for new world screw worm, throughout North America. How? By releasing millions of sterile male flies in Central America throughout the year. As recently as 2016, the species somehow made its way to the Florida Keys, jeopardizing populations of endangered Key deer. Sterile male flies were released en masses along the Florida Keys to eradicate the fly again, at a cost of millions of dollars.

There are more mosquito species out there than most people are aware of. Targeting one that plays an important part in transmitting diseases that cost human populations billions of dollars each year may not have the sort of downstream effects you're predicting.

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Urag-gro_Shub t1_ivg9psd wrote

I agree - while I generally don't promote messing with nature, there are so so many other species of mosquito that would fill in, should we eradicate 3 or 4 of them. At least where I live, many of them are invasive anyway.

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Alwayssunnyinarizona t1_ivgl35e wrote

Aedes aegypti, an important vector for Dengue and the subject of the study, was brought to the New World during the slave trade 500yrs ago. Seems like the New World had been doing fine in its absence before then.

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nevadagrl435 t1_ivji9ga wrote

In the case of Southern California they’ve been here ten years. It barely gets to freezing at night so they never die off. They’re so new people don’t know what to do about them. If dengue ever makes it to Southern California the people here are fucked.

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Alwayssunnyinarizona t1_ivka083 wrote

It's odd that it hasn't, there's enough movement of people from endemic areas into Southern California.

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nevadagrl435 t1_ivkaw3m wrote

Per the news they came in on a shipment of lucky bamboo around 2011.

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nevadagrl435 t1_ivggvcv wrote

Yeah so many defend mosquitoes but they are often invasive. Not native. Like the feral cat population of Australia.

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NoDownsideToOutside t1_ivguyuq wrote

There’s only one type of mosquito known to transmit deadly diseases out of the 200+ different mosquitoes.

Ridding the world of this one would prevent millions of deaths and mental disabilities that come about through this mosquito. No scientific paper has come to the conclusion that getting rid of it would have any noticeable effect on the environment since other species would take its place.

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HaikuBotStalksMe t1_ivhorb4 wrote

Nature isn't smart. It's random. Humans are smarter than general nature.

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