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RealJeil420 t1_ivfrten wrote

Reply to comment by bossonhigs in English company Oxitec has released a simple, easy to distribute commercial product they say cuts Dengue Fever spreading mosquito populations by 96%. By just adding water, genetically modified mosquito eggs mature into males whose sperm cannot result in viable female larvae. by lughnasadh

Mosquitos are like the base of a food chain pyramid. All kinds of insects feed on them and those in turn get eaten by birds, fish etc. It sounds like a devastating idea to me. Perhaps it could only be used in high populated areas but perhaps not and I cant see how it wouldnt have a detrimental effect, wherever.

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f10101 t1_ivfvlft wrote

Narrowly targeting very specific species of mosquito shouldn't cause major issues. Certainly compared to existing approaches to deal with them during severe disease outbreaks, which is basically to carpet bomb entire cities with insecticide.

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pearlsandplumes t1_ivgmn45 wrote

>Mosquitos are like the base of a food chain pyramid.

No, they patently are not, they are not the main food source for any one species. Also, many of these mosquito species are invasive and don't belong in these countries in the first place, they were imported centuries ago.

>Perhaps it could only be used in high populated areas

I mean, obviously? These boxes are expensive, no one is going to be wasting money on eradicating mosquitoes in the middle of a rainforest. Plus, if you stop deploying them even for one season, the mosquitoes will return immediately. This is temporary containment more than eradication.

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iaintevenmad884 t1_ivg1gke wrote

We should try releasing genetically modified mosquitos that don’t carry these diseases instead of removing them all together, exterminating mosquitos would be disastrous to ecosystems

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