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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

#31

Post by sohkamyung »

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, spiders and other small animals with no backbone). Up to 60% of insect species naturally carry Wolbachia, including butterflies, dragonflies, moths and some mosquito species, but not the primary species of mosquito involved in the transmission of dengue.

Wolbachia is also found in certain types of roundworms – known as nematodes – but this is very different to the insect Wolbachia that we work with. Wolbachia is not found in any larger animals such as mammals, reptiles, birds and fish.

- [1] [ http://www.eliminatedengue.com/faqs/index/type/wolbachia ]

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

#32

Post by lathiat »

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.

This always reminds me of the Star Trek Voyager episode "Year Of Hell"

Guy runs around with a ship that can destroy objects through all of time. Causing all of history to be rewritten. Trying to get his wife back after his home planet was destroyed. Manages to restore everything but his wife and goes mad trying to get that to happen.

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

#33

Post by corecoder »

I first read about using sterile male mosquitoes more than twenty years ago (there was no mention of the bacteria, so I don't know if a different technique was proposed); how comes this is news now?

Or is it that this has been proposed since forever but only now someone is talking of actually throwing money at it?

Edit: typos

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

#34

Post by hubert123 »

I dont get it, if you release a ton of sterile male mosquitos.. what exactly is their purpose? They cant bite, breed or spread diseases.. well okay, but why would the amount of bad mosquitos decrease in any way from their introduction? Wouldnt they simply die out quickly then, what's the lifespan of these good mosquitos? I dont get it at all.

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

#35

Post by SonOfLilit »

hubert123 wrote: post #34

I dont get it, if you release a ton of sterile male mosquitos.. what exactly is their purpose? They cant bite, breed or spread diseases.. well okay, but why would the amount of bad mosquitos decrease in any way from their introduction? Wouldnt they simply die out quickly then, what's the lifespan of these good mosquitos? I dont get it at all.

It would result in a lot of "childless mosquito marriages". Do this each year for a few breeding seasons and the population will die out. Run the math, it happens surprisingly quickly.

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

#36

Post by metachris »

hubert123 wrote: post #34

I dont get it, if you release a ton of sterile male mosquitos.. what exactly is their purpose? They cant bite, breed or spread diseases.. well okay, but why would the amount of bad mosquitos decrease in any way from their introduction? Wouldnt they simply die out quickly then, what's the lifespan of these good mosquitos? I dont get it at all.

http://debugproject.com/how/

Looks like they mate with females, which still lay eggs, but the won't hatch. So less bad bugs mate and produce offspring. Needs large numbers of good bugs though.

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

#37

Post by hubert123 »

metachris wrote: post #36
hubert123 wrote: post #34

I dont get it, if you release a ton of sterile male mosquitos.. what exactly is their purpose? They cant bite, breed or spread diseases.. well okay, but why would the amount of bad mosquitos decrease in any way from their introduction? Wouldnt they simply die out quickly then, what's the lifespan of these good mosquitos? I dont get it at all.

http://debugproject.com/how/ Looks like they mate with females, which still lay eggs, but the won't hatch. So less bad bugs mate and produce offspring. Needs large numbers of good bugs though.

Yeah it sounds like it would be better if the eggs still hatched but they should only produce good male mosquitos again.

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

#39

Post by bagels »

hubert123 wrote: post #37
metachris wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://debugproject.com/how/ Looks like they mate with females, which still lay eggs, but the won't hatch. So less bad bugs mate and produce offspring. Needs large numbers of good bugs though.

Yeah it sounds like it would be better if the eggs still hatched but they should only produce good male mosquitos again.

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.

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

#40

Post by hubert123 »

bagels wrote: post #39
hubert123 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it sounds like it would be better if the eggs still hatched but they should only produce good male mosquitos again.

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
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