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We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

debugproject.com

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Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#41

Post by laurent123456 »

azinman2 wrote: post #8
jaflo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your concern?

So many potential unexpected consequences. Most attempts at killing off a pest have resulted in all kinds of negative shifts in the environment that end up being worse, just look at the Great Leap Forward in China. There are examples worldwide of this. Ecology is just too networked and interdependent to be able to easily engineer.

There have been a lot of studies on this, and apparently it is safe to eradicate these particular mosquitoes (and given how many people are sick each years because of them, it doesn't feel like it could be worse than not eradicating them).

In any case, it's not really comparable to idiots killing birds during the GLF, since it was a completely stupid policy based on no science at all.

Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#44

Post by fiatjaf »

What's going to happen: a bug in development will cause the "good" mosquitoes' eggs to actually hatch, giving birth to mosquitoes that, because of an unexpected consequence of the bug, are immune to all other forms of killing AND live longer AND can give birth to many more mosquitoes than the previous, normal, "bad" mosquito.

Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#47

Post by coldpie »

mattparlane wrote: post #46

They don't mention this, but I believe this can cause extinction of mosquitoes within an area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique

I believe that is the goal. I'm all on board. I've heard about proposals like this for years and years. I'm thrilled someone is actually working to make this theory reality.

Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#48

Post by grenoire »

sohkamyung wrote: post #31
ThePhysicist wrote: post #24

I wonder how long it will take for the mosquitoes to evolve a mechanism that allows the female to detect males infected with that bacterium and not mate with them, or a mechanism to counteract the detrimental effect on the development of the eggs. Right now the evolutionary pressure to do this is probably quite low as there is only a small number of infected males, but if that number goes up the pressure will increas…

Yes, it may be possible for the mosquito to fight back. The bacteria isn't mentioned in the video, but I believe it could be Wolbachia, which is already pervalent in the insect world. According to this FAQ [1], it already infects 60% of the insect world, so it appears that developing an immunity to it might be pretty hard: 8. Do other animals carry Wolbachia? Wolbachia is common among arthropods (including insects, s…

The website notes that it indeed is the Wolbachia bacteria.

Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#49

Post by sp332 »

hubert123 wrote: post #40
bagels wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're only 'good' because they're sterile, and capable of sabotaging mosquito reproduction. If they weren't sterile and "only produce good male mosquitos again", the population would not decrease, they would just be releasing regular male mosquitos.

right, which means that eventually the entire population would be male and then die off

I was about to say that's impossible because meiosis produces equal number of "male" and "female" cells but... someone actually did it. https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2014/06/eradic...

Re: We’re trying to stop bad mosquitoes by raising and releasing good ones

#50

Post by yabatopia »

sohkamyung wrote: post #31
ThePhysicist wrote: post #24

I wonder how long it will take for the mosquitoes to evolve a mechanism that allows the female to detect males infected with that bacterium and not mate with them, or a mechanism to counteract the detrimental effect on the development of the eggs. Right now the evolutionary pressure to do this is probably quite low as there is only a small number of infected males, but if that number goes up the pressure will increas…

Yes, it may be possible for the mosquito to fight back. The bacteria isn't mentioned in the video, but I believe it could be Wolbachia, which is already pervalent in the insect world. According to this FAQ [1], it already infects 60% of the insect world, so it appears that developing an immunity to it might be pretty hard: 8. Do other animals carry Wolbachia? Wolbachia is common among arthropods (including insects, s…

What are the effects of Wolbachia on other insects? Is there a risk that other insects get eliminated by eating mosquitos carrying Wolbachia? It may be safe for humans and larger mammals, but how about smaller animals ansd insects?
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