Perfect way to breed resistant mosquitos.
hopefully they'll become resistant by not being attracted to the bait, and as a side effect, no longer attracted to humans?
Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
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Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#12Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#13IANABiologist, so I wonder, what's the chance that this nectar will also kill 'friendly' bugs, like bees?
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#14IANABiologist, so I wonder, what's the chance that this nectar will also kill 'friendly' bugs, like bees?
The article said that they used, "[...]Spinosad, a bacterial insecticide considered harmless to humans and most beneficial insects." Boric acid kills bugs. All of them (as far as I understand). Based on this incomplete data it looks like if Boric acid were used it would have to be baited with something that would not attract friendly bugs. Perhaps a vat of pig's blood laced with Boric acid or something similar would only kill of blood sucking insects. That'd be kind of nice...
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#15http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
Makes a good case for why eradicating mosquitoes will not be problematic.
But every time there is a large scale intervention like this the side effects only become apparent decades after the fact. You mess with ecosystems at this scale at your peril. Even if we can't see any downside to this today that doesn't mean there isn't a downside.
DDT looked pretty good once upon a time.
Another problem is that we simply have not mapped all the interactions between species within an ecosystem and eradicating one species might upset the balance in a hard to predict way.
Introduction of a new species can be problematic:
http://www.animalcontrol.com.au/rabbit.htm
We have some solid proof for that. Maybe 40 years from now we will know why eradicating something as obviously harmful as a mosquito can be problematic too.
That's the only way to learn, it would be nice if this research was proven correct.
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
hopefully they'll become resistant by not being attracted to the bait, and as a side effect, no longer attracted to humans?
The bait has nothing to do with the need for blood. It's a food source they need.
IIRC, only females are parasitic. If you poison males, the population will be reduced for the next generation... or the surviving males will have extra work :-)
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#17http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html Makes a good case for why eradicating mosquitoes will not be problematic. But every time there is a large scale intervention like this the side effects only become apparent decades after the fact. You mess with ecosystems at this scale at your peril. Even if we can't see any downside to this today that doesn't mean there isn't a downside. DDT looked pretty good…
I think the major difference between this attempt at species destruction and other previous attempts is the massive amount of human disease and death already perpetrated by the clumsy little biters.
It comes down to determining whats better: not messing with the environment and continuing to allow hundreds of thousands of human deaths a year. or trying to kill off mosquitoes.
Wikipedia claims that malaria alone causes 2.23% of yearly human death world wide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria
Thats a pretty ridiculous number if you think about it.
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#18http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html Makes a good case for why eradicating mosquitoes will not be problematic. But every time there is a large scale intervention like this the side effects only become apparent decades after the fact. You mess with ecosystems at this scale at your peril. Even if we can't see any downside to this today that doesn't mean there isn't a downside. DDT looked pretty good…
I think the major difference between this attempt at species destruction and other previous attempts is the massive amount of human disease and death already perpetrated by the clumsy little biters. It comes down to determining whats better: not messing with the environment and continuing to allow hundreds of thousands of human deaths a year. or trying to kill off mosquitoes. Wikipedia claims that malaria alone cause…
Huh? What previous attempts at species destruction are you referring to?
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#19http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html Makes a good case for why eradicating mosquitoes will not be problematic. But every time there is a large scale intervention like this the side effects only become apparent decades after the fact. You mess with ecosystems at this scale at your peril. Even if we can't see any downside to this today that doesn't mean there isn't a downside. DDT looked pretty good…
On the problematic side, the cheap boric acid solution (pun!) will likely be the most used. And this will be bad.
1) Boric acid will kill any insect that ingests it.
2) If you leave rotting fruit out, every nectar lover will drink it. From experience, this will be at least 50% honeybees.
So yeah, it will crash native honeybee populations too. If you are curious and want to see how effective it would be, mix up some bait without the poison. After a few hours, enough for every bug to find it, sit next to it for ten minutes. Count bees vs mosquitoes, you'll probably be disappointed.
Re: Toxic Nectar Kills 90% of Mosquito Populations
#20This could really have a positive effect on world wide health and I applaud the Gates foundation for taking on such lofty goals. Question though, despite absolutely loving the idea of a mosquito free world, is there a consequence to eliminating mosquitoes from the food chain?
It seems as though we expect no adverse consequences to their total elimination: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
I don't understand the conclusions that article draws. It spends 90% of it's time talking about how important mosquitos are, and then says "but that doesn't matter". I also think it's pretty ridiculous to assume some other insect will just fill in the gap before we wipe out untold numbers of plants and animals.