This was already done in China 3 years ago..
https://qz.com/640394/a-chinese-mosquito-factory-releases-20...
Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
171–180 of 285 posts
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#172What are the unintended consequences? Surely, these mosquitoes are someone's breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. What happens when that species can't eat?
They are an introduced species, so are already an unintended consequence
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a big mixed bag. If you do it that way, you just massively increased the recruitment potential for the Taliban. All of those farmers are now wiped out, have nothing to do for work, and have a new sworn enemy for life. The only possible solution that might yield positive results is aggressive replacement subsidization (extremely expensive).
They were supporting the Taliban already...
The Taliban prohibited poppy farms in 2001
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#174It is theorized there is no adverse effect from killing mosquito species. There is always a counter-effect. Typically it's unpredictable. Mosquitoes FACILITATE transmission of bad stuff. I believe that if bad stuff is not transmitted, species evolve more slowly against pathogens. Species will still be exposed, maybe generations later through a scratch or otherwise. At that point, having never evolved a strong immune…
There are always complex consequences, but note that Aedes aegypti is human-introduced in Australia to start with. It's an intrusive species, it may be safe to eradicate.
Yep, same in Fresno. Honestly in most places, they're only able to survive because of humans and people who over water their lawn specifically. The climate in these places are generically not made for that specie. It's also worth noting that there are many other types of musquito around so they're not wiping out all musquito, just that one specie which consist of a small fraction of all musquitos
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#175It is theorized there is no adverse effect from killing mosquito species. There is always a counter-effect. Typically it's unpredictable. Mosquitoes FACILITATE transmission of bad stuff. I believe that if bad stuff is not transmitted, species evolve more slowly against pathogens. Species will still be exposed, maybe generations later through a scratch or otherwise. At that point, having never evolved a strong immune…
I remember this was the big debate several years ago when the idea was first promoted. However, Google and some non-profits appear to be moving ahead with the blessing of local governments. I'm assuming that with the relatively short lifespan of mosquitos and birds, we'll be able to see if there's an unintended chain reaction in these local ecosystems in a few years time.
It's because the specific specie they target isn't even native to that place (it was introduced by humans), and also represent a small fraction of all musquitos in the area.
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#176IIRC this is an Australian initiative: the basic work on the application of Walbachia to dengue, the formation of the world mosquito program, it's an initiative grounded in Australian science.
yes, you will find "we did it" in China and Brazil and Vietnam and other places: The roots of this work go back to 2011 and before, at Monash University:
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#177Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its important to differentiate b/w the plans of a politician and the plans of research scientists who have done actual work in this area. Mao's plans seem to have been a hare-brained solution to China's problems (and they're not the only one. Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward cost more lives than both the world wars... and they were all Chinese lives).
> "Its important to differentiate b/w the plans of a politician and the plans of research scientists who have done actual work in this area." Not really, because the general public won't take such care with the differentiating. The more scientists deliberately exterminate or cull animals, the more the public will grow accustomed to the idea of humanity taking such an active violent role in the environment. And the mo…
If you're going to weigh the social factors in wiping out the 20-something species of mosquitoes which feed on humans (out of > 3000), I think you need to factor in the possibility that malaria (and thus mosquitos) may be responsible for HALF of human deaths in our history.
Half. That's an outrageous number, but Nature suggests it might be true: https://www.nature.com/news/2002/021003/full/news021001-6.ht...
At what point do you think we are ethically clear to take drastic action against another species? How many more human lives need to be lost before you think it's OK?
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#179What is the probability of these sterile mosquitoes somehow evolving and reproducing on their own ?! (So most of the batch is sterile and cant reproduce so cant evolve. But maybe just a single mosquito of the batch is "faulty" and can reproduce and is released anyway etc etc ?)
Or maybe the mosquitos evolve to be able to detect the sterile ones and avoid them?
80% isn't a high enough number to avoid adaptation.
Re: Trial wipes out over 80% of Australian disease-spreading mosquito
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but dice that roll sixes more often are contributing more offspring to the next generation. If the selection pressure keeps up, you will have most dice consistently rolling 6s.
The technique has been used against other species of insects since ~1950. There should be a horror story by now.
Horror story? The "horror story" would be "the insects are still around".