A brief history of the human war on mosquitoes...and why we are losing it again

DavidBrown said:
This article is a brief history of the human war on mosquitoes, how we briefly won it in the middle of the 20th century, and how we are losing it again...


https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...no-name_latin-mosquito-933pm_1:homepage/story
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Good article. Thanks for posting.

I would have liked to hear more about a genetically modified mosquito that produces sterile offspring. I am sure I read about some being released in Brazil.

Also, I wonder what the environmental impact of eradicating mosquitoes is. Would this have a domino effect if some species no longer have a food source of mosquitoes?
 
nanoboy said:
Also, I wonder what the environmental impact of eradicating mosquitoes is. Would this have a domino effect if some species no longer have a food source of mosquitoes?
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It's probably pertinent to point out that they are not targeting all mosquitos, only the ones that carry these nasty diseases. That's one of the benefits of the genetically modified strains - they target one specific species. A lot of the native mosquitos may avoid human habitation - the reason the ones carrying yellow fever and dengue are so bad is because they have adapted to human developed areas.

In the article I found it interesting to discover just who Walter Reed was.

:p

Hix
 
nanoboy said:
Good article. Thanks for posting.

I would have liked to hear more about a genetically modified mosquito that produces sterile offspring. I am sure I read about some being released in Brazil.
Click to expand...

I believe this technique is not new and has already been used before...
 
Hix said:
It's probably pertinent to point out that they are not targeting all mosquitos, only the ones that carry these nasty diseases. That's one of the benefits of the genetically modified strains - they target one specific species. A lot of the native mosquitos may avoid human habitation - the reason the ones carrying yellow fever and dengue are so bad is because they have adapted to human developed areas.

In the article I found it interesting to discover just who Walter Reed was.

:p

Hix
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I wonder if this would lead to co-extinction (is that the term?) where species whose main source of food is that particular species of mosquito will also go extinct.
 
I can't say for any certainty but imagine if the target mosquito becomes extinct the only other extinctions as a result will be host-specific parasites (i.e. parasites that are only found on that species). Things that prey on mosquitos as food usually aren't that picky with their mozzies, and eat other insects too.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
I can't say for any certainty but imagine if the target mosquito becomes extinct the only other extinctions as a result will be host-specific parasites (i.e. parasites that are only found on that species). Things that prey on mosquitos as food usually aren't that picky with their mozzies, and eat other insects too.

:p

Hix
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And probably some other mosquitoes will (at least partly) fill up the empty niche very quickly and it is on a very large time scale only waiting before new diseases pop up...
 
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