GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
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Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#2I wonder how much ecological damage is done by humans trying to protect their communities from disease borne mosquitos.
I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#3What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#4I wonder how much ecological damage is done by humans trying to protect their communities from disease borne mosquitos. I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
>I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
Sure, they can use the other pools of standing water not near humans. The reason it works to limit some species of mosquito (mostly aedes aegypti) is that they preferentially seek to bite humans and so live near them. Other bugs seek out plants and other bugs so they can live elsewhere.
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#5I wonder how much ecological damage is done by humans trying to protect their communities from disease borne mosquitos. I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
>I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed? Sure, they can use the other pools of standing water not near humans. The reason it works to limit some species of mosquito (mostly aedes aegypti) is that they preferentially seek to bite humans and so live near them. Other bugs seek out plants and other bugs so they can live…
There are more than 7 billion humans in the world and lots of agricultural land is required to feed the ones in cities. How much land area is not near humans?
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#6I wonder how much ecological damage is done by humans trying to protect their communities from disease borne mosquitos. I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
quite - presumably there are other animals eating these insects.
Then again, malaria kills lots and lots of people every year, and I suspect if I was in a malaria-prone country I might feel different about the balance of protecting humans vs potential ecological effects (even if in the long term this might cause big negative changes)
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#7What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?
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Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed? Sure, they can use the other pools of standing water not near humans. The reason it works to limit some species of mosquito (mostly aedes aegypti) is that they preferentially seek to bite humans and so live near them. Other bugs seek out plants and other bugs so they can live…
There are more than 7 billion humans in the world and lots of agricultural land is required to feed the ones in cities. How much land area is not near humans?
A lot. Humans are clustered.
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#9What unintended consequences could large scale deployment have?
Fungi are known to produce biocides.
Re: GM fungus can rapidly kill mosquitoes that spread malaria, study suggests
#10I wonder how much ecological damage is done by humans trying to protect their communities from disease borne mosquitos. I grew up with parents that urged me to prevent pools of standing water, but don’t lots of non-mosquito insects need standing water to breed?
Keep in mind malaria also kills lots of animals besides humans.