Submitted by lughnasadh t3_yortnc in Futurology
The following submission statement was provided by /u/lughnasadh:
Submission Statement
This is great news, but it's worth remembering that of the 725,000 human deaths every year from mosquitoes, 600,000 of those are from malaria, and this technique doesn't work with the mosquitoes that cause it.
Still, what is hopeful about this technique is that it's so cheap and easy to operate. The boxes with the eggs can be easily distributed and take no special knowledge to operate. It really is as simple as just adding the right amount of water to the right schedule.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/yortnc/english_company_oxitec_has_released_a_simple_easy/ivfh008/
However much I support Science efforts, I can't help not to be concerned about methods that involves elimination of insects even those are just annoying mosquitoes.
First thing that comes to my mind is that bats are feeding off mosquitoes, and other insects. Reducing number of mosquitoes could reduce population of bats, which in long term would cause explosion of insect population.
Messing with nature doesn't end well.
Agreed. I've brought up similar concerns in the past, and once was told that bats don't eat mosquitoes. Just prepare for a lot of trolling. People really hate mosquitoes.
Mosquitos are like the base of a food chain pyramid. All kinds of insects feed on them and those in turn get eaten by birds, fish etc. It sounds like a devastating idea to me. Perhaps it could only be used in high populated areas but perhaps not and I cant see how it wouldnt have a detrimental effect, wherever.
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.
Well,screw screw worm. Just kill it.
Narrowly targeting very specific species of mosquito shouldn't cause major issues. Certainly compared to existing approaches to deal with them during severe disease outbreaks, which is basically to carpet bomb entire cities with insecticide.
But with the scourge of how many mosquito-borne illnesses affect humanity, the benefits might outweigh the costs for us.
Does the technique not work on the species that transmits malaria, or has it just not been done yet because they started with the dengue transmitting ones?
We should try releasing genetically modified mosquitos that don’t carry these diseases instead of removing them all together, exterminating mosquitos would be disastrous to ecosystems
Yeah, I just keep thinking about the good intentions that led to Africanized killer bees.
So... when are we airdropping them all over South America too? Pleeeease, kill the bastards.
No possible negative consequences of killing all the mosquitos I'm sure
Until the food chain collapses. The world is NOT "for humans".
Bats and birds both eat mosquitos. These people would rather all animals go extinct than have a chance at getting a mosquito disease.
EDIT: My point isn't really valid and a comment pointed that out for me. Death to the mosquitos
I'm not at all opposed to kicking the shit out of mosquitos but would it be possible to make a female mosquito that just doesn't drink blood? Because doing that would allow for thr populations to be maintained so that mosquitos can continue to be a food source for other animals. With the solution proposed here we'd be essentially killing all the mosquitos.
I dont know enough about wildlife to know if thats ok and tbh i dont care that much but it was a thought that I had
Naw that's just making a different problem. Female mosquitos need blood as a food source to produce eggs. (Or something like that) If they can't use blood they would need to find a different food source and whatever that ended up being would also be a huge change to the ecosystem.
Humans need to develop a way to fight the disease within the human population so as not to disrupt other species.
Australia and New Zealand are school examples.
I live in an area that has never had mosquitoes, but now suddenly does due to an invasive species moving in. So I think it’s worth asking whether certain animals are critical to an ecosystem, or merely a parasite
Wrong thread, I think?
I know this will sound harsh, but mosquitoes born illness is the very mechanism nature uses to restore balance when one particular species multiply in such great numbers and become a treat to natural balance itself.
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.
You make a very good point and I am now fully on board
The article states that it is already being tested on Brazil, I have no idea of Dengue problems at the other spanish speaking countries of SA, but should be easy to spread it to them considering this.
Maybe they can “accidentally” ship out the modified eggs that combat the malaria-spreading mosquito population…
Genetic modification? Do you want Jurassic Park, because this is how you get Jurassic Park’s!
But the odds of killing off one mosquito species collapsing food chains seems unlikely. There are over 3000 species of mosquito globally and many likely fill similar niches and likely in at least semi overlapping ranges.
That’s a theory/opinion. The statement assumes an intent by nature as if it was somehow cognizant of its actions.
So the problem with mosquitoes is fixed by more mosquitoes?
I only read the title, but it implies that the company is taking credit for inventing.... water.
I'm sure that's not the story, but for a moment I could believe that could happen in a capitalist society.
that's like saying humans would go extinct if people stopped eating beef.
like...you DO realize that they eat OTHER things as well right?
Aedes aegypti is an invasive species who came from to the Americas, so no big problem trying to eliminate it cause it’s a plague
The real question is: when is this technology coming for cockroaches ?
Yeah so many defend mosquitoes but they are often invasive. Not native. Like the feral cat population of Australia.
How about in other Portuguese speaking countries?
While reading about a similar technique for malaria carrying mosquitoes, there were concerns for gene transfer into or from the gmo mosquitoes.
There are many species of mosquitoe and fly that can fill the niche that species like bats and swallows depend on for food.
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The second, but they've started trails for the malaria mosquitoes too. https://www.oxitec.com/en/news/oxitecs-malaria-program-receives-new-investment-to-expand-to-pilot-phases-in-two-malaria-affected-regions
Oh good, it didn't seem correct to me that they'd hit such a roadblock for such a similar type of pest.
That is one of the advantages of this method, actually. It is species specific, as opposed to insecticides that kill lots of untargeted insects too.
Something something chemicals in the water turning the mosquitos gay?
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.
No one is eliminating anything, this is only done in city areas to protect the human population, Brazil is friggin' huge. Also, if you stop deploying these boxes even just for one season, they come back immediately. Plus, not a single species -- except for the viruses, bacteria, and the parasites that cause horrible diseases -- is dependent on mosquitoes alone.
>Messing with nature doesn't end well.
Thanks, I'll be sure to tell that to my doctor at my next chemo appointment. 🙄
The food chain is not going to collapse because one invasive species of mosquito (i.e. species that doesn't even belong there in the first place) is going to be eradicated from a couple of cities (not even the whole country). Not a single species is dependent on eating mosquitoes alone.
How fortunate that it mainly affects brown and black people, then. What a disgusting and deplorable way to view humanity, please educate yourself.
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We are either part of a nature, or we destroy it for our selfish needs
How's it going? What you have?
Aedes aegypti is not native to the Americas (the clue is in the name). Even if this species was totally eliminated there (which it won't be) it would only be undoing a messing with nature previously done by humans.
Last good years? So...no children?
>Mosquitos are like the base of a food chain pyramid.
No, they patently are not, they are not the main food source for any one species. Also, many of these mosquito species are invasive and don't belong in these countries in the first place, they were imported centuries ago.
>Perhaps it could only be used in high populated areas
I mean, obviously? These boxes are expensive, no one is going to be wasting money on eradicating mosquitoes in the middle of a rainforest. Plus, if you stop deploying them even for one season, the mosquitoes will return immediately. This is temporary containment more than eradication.
>Messing with nature doesn't end well.
From that perspective, you should favor this effort. Ades egypti mosquitoes are an invasive species from Africa, there were zero of them in Brazil, or anywhere in the Americas, before 1492.
To generalize a bit more, the ecosystem absolutely needs mosquitoes, but it probably doesn't need the ones that are major human disease vectors. There are dozens of mosquito species in any given location, and this treatment is species- specific.
I grew up in venezuela and everyone had to get mandatory vaccines for typhoid, dengue, hepatitis A and yellow fever in school every year.
They were needed otherwise medical systems would be super strung during the rain season and even more people would die. Pretty shitty deaths too and it greatly affected kids.
Malaria was also around but there wasnt a vaccine for it. Seems the first one just got approved which is great
Edit: thank you for pointing out the dengue vaccine is a new development. I forgot there was no vaccine for it until this year.
It doesn't have to be. Evolution is underlying law it abides. One with cognition might observe and draw conclusions. Have you ever watched Planet Earth, that episode with ants in the forest?
Cordiceps fungy infects ant wandered too far, when it returns to colony it becomes zombie but again it goes away and climbs on a branh and spread spores.
Practically, it keeps ant colonies from spreading too much, keeping a buffer zone between ant colonies.
There is some grand design there.
It's not like fungus kills whole colony. It keeps them in check.
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I suppose you have never heard of unintended consequences or seen the entire history of human attempts to "manage" the environment. It's moot anyway, since the anthropocene mass extinction began years ago and we are estimated to be losing 40+ species every day.
If you artificially remove a major component of a local ecosystem food chain, that is what happens. In your scenario, a human can replace the beef with other foods. That's not how nature works. If you walk in and kill half the deer, for instance, then the predator animals have less food. It's not complicated.
If there's thing everybody can universally get behind it's mosquito genocide
I was gonna say this is pretty much the premise of Jurassic World Dominion.
200 in North America. 12 spread diseases.
> If you walk in and kill half the deer, for instance, then the predator animals have less food.
deer are far larger, just how many calories do you think this species of mosquito has?
This will be the opening statement at the conference in Paris Where the top scientists, organic chemists, biologists and Farmers, why not, are gathered to describe the plan they have to reintroduce the mosquitoes that will bring back the bats and birds that will bring back the other predators and prey that, they hope, will revitalize the area or something. Scary sci-fi😂😂
That’s another solution programmed to self destruct in 1 generation. And that’s always the problem with these genetic bomb ideas. It will eventually kill the fix and the mosquitos left over will breed just fine.
The mosquito in question is an invasive species so life goes on once extinct.
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.
Isn’t dengue vaccine a recent development.
They're doing this slowly and deliberately on purpose so as not to cause a backlash.
Most of these disease carrying mosquitoes are not native to the places they are now found. They arrived on ships during the age of sail. They're invasive species. Moreover in places where they are from they occupy a crowded niche of non-disease(for humans at least) carrying mosquitoes. It's a pretty well studied topic and no one is engaged in this without having considered environmental impact.
If we could eradicate the disease reservoir for mosquito-borne diseases that would be ideal - I think people could live with mozzies if they knew they weren’t going to get malaria/schistosomiasis/dengue/Zika/West Nile/Japanese encephalitis etc. Then again there are so many animal diseases that they spread and maintain the existence of as well…
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We are responsible for many extinctions of Native and important species every year, eradicating one non-native bug species isn’t going to harm anything. I’d be for it if it only meant less bites.
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At least in Venezuela, mosquitoes are like, the cause of like 3-4 'big no no' diseases. Dengue, Zika, and Chicunguña (hell if I know how to spell it in spanish, nevermind in english)
Nah FUCK those bitches, unless they're zapping me with improve mental health juice instead of itchy juice I want them all dead.
That would be an ecological disaster. Think of all the other animals that feed on said mosquitoes.
This is targeting a very specific species though - other mosquitoes would take its place. 🤷♂️
I'd like to be that way. Egypt mosquito was introduced to new world with slave trade. It's spreading in other warmers areas in the world so getting rid of it where it doesn't belong seems like a good idea.
What if then the female mosquitoes just become A reproductive? “Life finds a way.”
Maybe they could do mosquito abatement and release these from non treated water so there wouldn’t be a really heavy mosquito season. That and there would be fewer bad mosquitoes to mate with making the process more effective.
There was an article saying how they used mosquitoes to transmit a malaria vaccine recently.
And don't forget animals whose population is reduced by such pests, no matter how ugly it sounds - too much wild goats/deers/bulls etc is a natural disaster too.
Ah yes, meddling in the lowest level of the food chain. Nice. I love technology but at some point ecosystems has to be respected
There's already been studies to show there's enough non mosquito insects to feed from. In short, the world has tons of bugs. Also there's no animal that feeds solely on mosquitoes
You're just describing the ecology of parasitism/pathogens. If the fungus killed the whole colony, it would have no hosts and go extinct. A fungus that did that would therefore be selected against, as it would not be able to pass on its genes following the extermination of its hosts. The evolutionary role of the fungus isn't to keep ant colonies in check, it's to pass on its genes. As killing entire colonies quickly would be detrimental to passing on its genes, it's not something that would occur sustainably.
The only good mosquito is a dead mosquito. I don't care it would damage the biosphere or whatever - they hurt. And they love me.
Kill. Them. All.
The Aedes spp. mosquitos contribute negligently to the food chain. In most areas with dengue they are invasive species. They are almost entirely urban species that invaded those spaces. Lastly, there are dozens of mosquito species that do not vector human pathogens and are going to continue existing in the environment.
All that said, I think there are better ways for governments to spend their money to fight vector borne diseases.
Brazil isn't a spanish speaking country
It's one of the most solid facts of science that the extinction of Mosquitoes, specifically, would have zero effect on the food chain, population of other species, or any other natural process.
This has been settled fact for something like 30 years.
It's been studied for decades, and the summary extinction of all species of mosquitoes would net zero negative effect of any kind in any ecosystem.
In fact, numerous studies have shown many ecosystems would improve in balance and stability if mosquitoes were eliminated.
As Obligate Omnivores, Humans are a bad example (if you meant all red meat, of course - I see you specified beef, which leaves plenty of other options).
I don't like settled science and it's promoters. Settled science was DDT, PCB safety, teflon, uranium as health wonder, mercury as a cure etc...
I like science evolving and scientists questioning and proposing thesis.
Right, it's just that no local ecosystem exists, according to decades of scientific research, in which mosquitoes are a significant beneficial component.
Before we eliminate mosquitoes we should consider their impact on the ecosystem, every organism plays an important role. Mosquitoes are pollinators, just as an example
That’s a very Malthusian sentiment, it’s not just for us in areas without malaria to tell those with malaria that they can’t cure their infectious diseases. The planet is filled with our human brothers and sisters and we need to make sure they have as good lives as we do.
Tons of bugs for now
Maybe every dumbass who doesn't understand how ecosystems work. Mosquitoes are very important. we should be focusing on protection and vaccines
That's very philanthropic. I can't say I don't have mixed feeling about humanity so I admit that sometimes everyone is brother and sister to me, but other times, they are just ....
But... isn't for example malaria curable by prescription drugs? What's wrong with sending medications? No profit?
Similarly, I don't care about you. You can't just purposefully destroy a species, that's horrific.
I don't really see it as philanthropic but just part of society building. We establish medical care and labor laws and etc to prevent easily preventable deaths, and so the same sort works when it comes to treating tropical diseases. In this instance, its those outside a certain nation (most of the developed world has already eradicated malaria) which I feel is probably a net positive for all of us. It most likely is going to enhance things like productivity and output in nations that still deal with these diseases, and I could imagine plenty of scenarios where it makes sense to help fight diseases, looking at things beyond an ethical sense.
Malaria at the moment can be treated with prescription drugs, but the emphasis right now is on eradication is on ending transmission. I think it would be more costly to send medicines than things like bed nets and DDT, and I don't think it would be as effective. The goal is to wipe out the habitats that house malaria.
Someone should spend some time meditating on unintended consequences before releasing this.
All of the bugs that thrive in human activity
Thanks, that's somewhat comforting at least.
I don't think so, actually.
The species that bother humans are very limited. Out of the 3000+ species of mosquito of which we are aware, less than 100 bother humans at all. And less than 10 cause the diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of humans every year.
Do you think ecologists are not involved in this research? The majority opinion of scientists is that is that it's acceptable. The eradication of say, the Aedes mosquito would eliminate Dengue Fever. Eradication of Anopheles would eliminate Malaria. The loss of these two species would not severely impact the ecosystem considering the fact that their ecological niche would be taken up by other mosquitos that do not bother humans, mosquitos that are already in the same ecosystem.
Malaria is caused by a parasite, there is no such thing as a vaccine. The anti-parasitical medication which kills the parasite has to be taken weekly. You cannot idealistically expect millions (almost a billion, actually) of poor people to buy this medication. Strategically eliminating specific mosquito species would save the lives of millions of people. Literally millions. These are real people, real lives, not some fucking statistic which you can blindly sacrifice in order to preserve a couple handfuls of mosquito species.
As I write this, I've been repeatedly bit by lonely mosquito.
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When it comes to mosquitos, If I can, I would lol.
Genuinely curious. Why does the ecosystem need mosquitoes. Even the non disease carrying ones.
Do you really think that scientists haven’t done an analysis on the global food chain?
Mosquitoes contribute almost nothing to it and their costs outweigh any benefits.
Fuck insects. I know Reddit worships them, but I'm cool with them being dead.
Nature isn't smart. It's random. Humans are smarter than general nature.
The company also should do that for the Chinese hornets that are killing the bees in Europe and US, which is causing problems with having enough bees for pollination.
Bats and birds eat them. And the males are pollinators (and ofc don't suck animal blood; only the females do, for egg-laying)
And there's probably more cascading elements that I'm not aware of, but at a minimum they (and their larvae) are a fairly abundant food source for all kinds of small animals (incl amphibians, fish, etc)
There isn't really any animal in the natural world that doesn't have some kind of a supportive role somewhere, outside of pure internal parasites and the like.
As the top level comment mentioned, they’re a food source for bats, and also spiders and many other animals and even carnivorous plants in the right areas.
Eliminating mosquitoes can quickly mess up the entire food chain.
Don't forget Alligators. Everytime there's a big hurricane the Alligators rule Florida again for a short while lol.
“Aedes aegypti originated in Africa and was spread to the New World through slave trade,[15] but is now found in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions[16] throughout the world.[17]Ae. aegypti's distribution has increased in the past two to three decades worldwide, and it is considered to be among the most widespread mosquito species”
male mosquitoes do a lot of pollination work iirc. and they are food for larger animals. something something, circle of live..
There’s an unfathomable number of mosquito species. And only a handful spread diseases that harm humans.
Something will take its place
Name, How much price and please, can it be shipped to India?
I'm not taking lives lightly. I think some here are taking the fragility and interconnectedness of ecosystems lightly. We can guess, but we can't know the ramifications of taking actions like this.
I'd also strongly recommend you ask whether you should, before worrying about being itchy. Taking something out of the food chain can have unintended consequences. They're tiny but you'd be amazed how much of their biomass supports birds and fish. The world is already unbalanced enough without taking things out of the house of cards willy nilly.
I think i've read it may be possible to just remove the highest offending species, but it still needs to be closely monitored.
Mosquitoes are not native to America. They don't belong here and our ecosystem would be better for it.
Are there any in South America? I'm aware of a couple in Africa, and Portugal of course.
Especially when we don't know the consequences of eradicating the species.
Have there been studies done on how this will affect the larger ecosystem?
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We would lose our galactic status as a protected wild life reserve.
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Yes, I wasn't referring to all red meat. That being said, there's not much I could find out about "obligate omnivores", so I'm not sure what you mean by that.
“But no one and no thing has done more to delay this catastrophe [rainforest destruction], over the past 10,000 years, than the mosquito.”
— From ‘sympathy for the devil’ a short essay I recommend.
(Scroll down past mosquito biology if not interesting to you): https://publicism.info/nature/sidelong/3.html
Getting rid of em makes it easier to cut up the topical rainforests of the world. Make progress. Get the non-immune European colonialists in there. The greater good.
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The certain deaths of millions of people take precedent over the possibility of unforeseen ecological impacts, especially if experts say those impacts are unlikely.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2019.0270
As a matter of fact, the spread of the Aedes mosquito (responsible for most mosquito diseases but not malaria), originally localized to Egypt, is a result of human intervention. This species is inherently invasive, that is, it does not belong in most ecosystems.
The extinction of human-feeding mosquitos also heads off the possibility of a future global pandemic of zoonotic origin that jumps species to humanity due to mosquitos. And the pandemic is significantly more likely than severe ecological impact from their extinction. As a matter of fact, scientists have been warning about the dangers of a COVID-like pathogen being transmissible by mosquitos.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-25/column-california-mosquitoes
We cause the extinction of dozens of animal species (about 150) literally every day. This one just happens to be deliberate, because they're causing half- to three-quarters of a million human deaths every year. And because of climate change, one of those deaths might end up being you.
Humans are the disease reservoir for some of these.
Not that many animals feed on one thing so I don't think that is a very good argument. What I'd like to see is percentage of diet for each animal and then overall for each area, to see the impact. As well as the "accidental pollination" as it's called, that the males do since they feed on nectar and such, less pollination is always a negative.
I am not against the idea but I think there's a lot more to the eradicatin of a species than most of these studies seem to show...
There's a vaccine for dengue? Since when? How good is it?
Alligators are cool though. Sure they may rip your arm off if you go too close, but they dont fly around whining all the time in that INFURIATING NOISE and making everyone itchy.
Honestly for me the noise is actually worse than the bite.
True, alligators don't really bother people if you know to avoid them haha. And yeah they are cool!
Brazil is in South America...
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>We cause the extinction of dozens of animal species (about 150) literally every day
Precisely. Humanity is a disaster. I understand and appreciate your argument, and you may be right. But for me it is never okay to genocide a species. As far as I'm concerned it's nature trying to reclaim a bit of space for itself.
Oh, it absolutely would have consequences, yes. I don't care.
We already drove numerous species to extinction (no, seriously, we are an extinction event called the Holocene extinction, we killed 30% of all species in 500 years), at least this time it would be for an excellent reason.
If it makes you feel better, the mosquito species in question will continue to exist in much lower numbers farther from human civilization. This kind of measure is self-limiting because the modified mosquitos (and their offspring) will eventually die out on their own, being sterile. Aedes populations in remote regions will survive. The hope is that with those lower numbers the diseases will die out since the mosquitos will be exposed to far fewer infected humans.
Yeah I get it. For me, the biosphere is always ranked above humanity in importance (since it is what we are and what we depend on). Ultimately I am more concerned about the precedent this would set. Earth is extremely overpopulated and we are bound to live in places that the earth would rather reclaim. Not trying to minimize the importance of human life, just saying human life isn't more important than earth life.
THEYRE PUTTIN CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN MOSQUITOES GAY
I wonder if more will grow more than 15 feet. Most only have 4.
Well thankfully more sensible types will be making that decision 🙏
I meant are there any others, the guy I was replying to asked about other Portuguese speaking countries.
The mosquitoes that transmit malaria are less easy to manipulate genetically, and their eggs can't be dried in the same way as they're way less hardy than dengue mosquito's eggs. So Oxitec started with the easier job, forugoid reason. Also there's way more commercial viability for anti-dengue interventions for all sorts of reason's.
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.
What will happen to the dragonfly population when the mosquitoes die out?
Many scientists have already said that if every human biting mosquito suddenly went extinct that it would have almost no effect on the ecosystem. Other than of course less deaths from mosquitos.
What about panda?
Chinese have removed their forrests, so now they don’t really serve a purpose. They did beforehand and was top notch evolved to their specific function.
They’re testing near us in Southern California thank fucking god
Kill them all
It's odd that it hasn't, there's enough movement of people from endemic areas into Southern California.
Per the news they came in on a shipment of lucky bamboo around 2011.
Brunhoa originally said Brazil and then referred to other Spanish speaking countries...
Oh, I understand now, my bad.
I was wrong. There wasn't one back then, it was just one of the more common diseases to deal with and I forgot there wasn't a vax.
Like someone else pointed out, it is a very recent development from this year so I don't know much about it
Chikungunya usually
lughnasadh OP t1_ivfh008 wrote
Submission Statement
This is great news, but it's worth remembering that of the 725,000 human deaths every year from mosquitoes, 600,000 of those are from malaria, and this technique doesn't work with the mosquitoes that cause it.
Still, what is hopeful about this technique is that it's so cheap and easy to operate. The boxes with the eggs can be easily distributed and take no special knowledge to operate. It really is as simple as just adding the right amount of water to the right schedule.