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750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes approved for release in Florida Keys
- Thread starter hordak
- Start date
Honestly, I prefer the version that just did a lifecycle reduction to about a week. Mosquitos only feed once a week iirc and they only transfer disease when they feed twice, so it would eliminate their ability to spread disease while still leaving them in the ecosystem to be predated upon.
OP
OP
just remember that everything on this planet works with conjunction with everything else. Everything has a purpose. and it has worked pretty good for billions of years. until humans came around and fucked over everything. So killing off one species of mosquitos out of 3,000 probably won't effect the global ecosystem much. Hopefully. But yeah we all know there's one species that fucks over everything.....
just remember that everything on this planet works with conjunction with everything else. Everything has a purpose. and it has worked pretty good for billions of years. until humans came around and fucked over everything. So killing off one species of mosquitos out of 3,000 probably won't effect the global ecosystem much. Hopefully. But yeah we all know there's one species that fucks over everything.....
Humans are a natural species. Humans are capable of fucking over ecosystems to their exclusive detriment, as you yourself have posited.
Therefore, it is possible for a natural species to be a pure detriment to its ecosystem.
It is, therefore, not unreasonable to assume there are non-human species that also exist as a purely parasitic/destructive force in their environment.
My knee-jerk reaction is good, fuck mosquitoes, but after thinking about it I don't think this is a good idea somehow.
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Seriously, I don't get the natural ecosystem imbalance argument. This isn't going to kill all mosquitoes. There is no positive ecosystem add to the urban corridor that is south Florida other than disease.
A similar programme was expanded in Singapore this year. It's kind of gone under the radar because of covid, but the dengue outbreak this year has killed almost the same number of people with half the cases.
Mosquitoes continues to be responsible for one of the biggest deathcounts in human history but seems like many posters here are US-centric. I get it because this is about Florida, but the concept isn't just being applied in the US.
It was more of an expression than anything else tbh, I'm an atheist lmao. Fair point though.
Fuck mosquitos. I'm giving everyone criticizing this the side eye, and assuming they are now mosquitos gathered into a human suit as agents of their chaos.
I'm on to you.
I'm on to you.
we've actually got strong environmental science programs at FIU and USF that know what they are doing.
Here in Singapore we've had this for a while already, because dengue is a really serious problem here.
www.straitstimes.com
Fighting dengue with genetically modified mosquitoes
It sounds crazy, but biotechnology company Oxitec has been breeding and releasing millions of mosquitoes in dengue hot spots, to keep the deadly disease in check. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Mosquitos are pure evil and I support all efforts to bring their populations down.
Googling around, it looks like scientists estimate that 5% of all humans ever born throughout history died from malaria.
yeah i get it. we are literally the worst in many ways. like voting
I'm more interested in the logistics than the ethical concerns. How does one obtain millions of mosquitos that are engineered not to breed? If they can't really breed because they die as larva, how do you have millions of them? Where do you store them before you release them- is there a giant warehouse full of crates of mosquitos somewhere? What do you feed them so they have sustenance before they're released?!
I'm picturing a shipping container full of millions of mosquitoes sitting in the middle of the Everglades, waiting for someone to open it. And every week the mosquito wranglers usher in a live goat to keep them satiated
I'm picturing a shipping container full of millions of mosquitoes sitting in the middle of the Everglades, waiting for someone to open it. And every week the mosquito wranglers usher in a live goat to keep them satiated
Sure they have. I mean, they're posting right here in this thread trying to get us to stop this with their pro-mosquito propaganda.
No because there are thousands of species of Mosquitoes. They target the ones that are disease carriers which are just a few.
Yes, wipe them the fuck out. I've done enough research on this topic to say that the benefits gained from this far outweigh the low risks of something going wrong.
Exactly, you're not a scientist.
But there ARE scientists actually "going after" the diseases.
This is not a binary choice, mosquitos OR looking for cures.