GMO Mosequitoes Solve Pesticide Issues People are Afraid of Turning Into Mutants

[BitVyper]

I can't actually find any research on potential ecological impacts of making mosquitoes extinct, so it's entirely possible that this there-will-be-no-consequences business is just a bunch of ecologists talking out of their collective ass in a magazine. I was able to find THAT easily.

That said, I don't really see any problem with trying it in some places to see how it goes. I doubt it would work on a global scale anyway. Controlling populations, sure, but actually making them go extinct? Well, like I said, I doubt it.

[RawBot]

That said, I don't really see any problem with trying it in some places to see how it goes.

It's like I never posted. I shouldn't have named myself after WarBot in Accounting.


Some problems:
- Genetically modified biting females erroneously released will bite animals and humans
- Genetically modified males will produce descendants that will survive and breed further
- Modified genes are therefore likely to spread
- These genes make mosquitoes need antibiotics to survive. So what if such genes spread ? In medicine, antibiotics become less and less effective the more you are exposed to them.

It's impossible to predict or control the results of this. At least a decade worth of research would be necessary: We're not done yet understanding pesticides and they've been all over the place for decades causing terrible sanitary issues around the world.

There's already plenty of evidence that "do first, think later" when it comes to massive industrial activity has a dramatic tendency to end up in ecological and sanitary scandals.

So I'm totally for releasing genetically modified things all over the place.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Originally Posted by rpgdemon

Pretty much all ecologists agree that if you killed all the mosquitos, literally nothing would happen, aside from mosquitos not annoying you. They fill no unique niche in an ecosystem, and some other bug would take their spot.

I would think that they atleast serve as a food source to spiders and the like though?

At any rate, I'd prefer to take the risk mosquitoes that are genetically modified by professionals over mosquitoes that could give me or my loved ones malaria, especially when the alternative is just pumping more pesticides into the world. And as the article states, the modified mosquitoes are male, they aren't going to bite anyone, they're just going to fuck with the genepool. Most fears for human safety are more or less unfounded I feel.

[Flarecobra]

I cannot believe I missed this part when reading it before.

They have done this process before, with very successful results.

Originally Posted by the article

Oxitec’s research has surrounded Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which serve as a vector for several diseases. The mosquitos have a modified version of a gene that will kill their progeny as larvae, before they are able to fly. As only female mosquitos bite, the aim is to only release modified males. When these males breed with wild females, the next generation will reduce considerably. During a six-month-long timespan in 2012, Oxitec released a total of 3.3 million modified males in the Cayman Islands and successfully reduced the native mosquito population in the area by 96%

So it's not like they're going into this totally blind. I actually have higher hopes for this then before in fact.