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Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in Fresno
- Lagged2Death 9y agoWhat kind of planning and permitting process does a project like this require? Or would it be legal for me to just go and release a cloud of mosquitoes myself?
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoIf you're a massive company that is importing a bunch of money all you have to do is make the right phonecalls "hi, this is X calling on the behalf of $C_level_person at Google. $C_level_person would like to meet with you to discuss controlling the local mosquito population, no cost to the city, of course. Please call back when you have a chance." A mid-level city administrator will probably call back.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pcarolan 9y agoGoogle gets sued for experimenting on humans without their permission, what happens next will shock you!
- Cpoll 9y ago?? > Verily’s male mosquitos were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which is harmless to humans but when they mate with and infect their female counterparts, it makes their eggs unable to produce offspring. > male mosquitos don’t bite
- joejerryronnie 9y agoI know I shouldn't click but I ... just ... can't ... help it!
- phkahler 9y agoI wish the other mosquito killing efforts would go forward.
- riffic 9y agoWhich "other" efforts? Do you mean pesticides?
- apendleton 9y agoThere has been a separate research effort to develop mosquitoes that are genetically modified rather than bacteria-infected, with similar objectives, that so far has been stymied in the US by a combination of stronger regulatory hurdles (since it's regulated by a different agency) and NIMBYism. Oxitec is the company spearheading that research. See, e.g., http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/20/502717253/florida-keys-approves-trial-of-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-to-fight-zika http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/20/50271725...
- lorenzhs 9y agoWhere I live the KABS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Mosquito_Control_Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Mosquito_Control_Associ...) is very effective at reducing mosquito populations: "At a cost of 400k€ annually the result is a reduction of the mosquito population by 99% compared to untreated areas", and 95% of total mosquitoes in the larger area. They use proteins produced by a bacterium (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) to kill the larvae. It's fantastic, their work improves quality of life significantly.
- mratzloff 9y agoIt's time to wipe harmful mosquito species out completely.
- cpete 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences
- xexers 9y agoIt would be very easy to re-introduce the mosquitoes back into the wild if their absence cause problems
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- thephyber 9y agoFrom the WHO factsheet[1] on malaria: > Nearly half of the world's population is at risk of malaria. > In 2015, there were roughly 212 million malaria cases and an estimated 429 000 malaria deaths. > Increased prevention and control measures have led to a 29% reduction in malaria mortality rates globally since 2010. > Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2015, the region was home to 90% of malaria cases and 92% of malaria deaths. If you lived in a mosquito/disease endemic region, would you still have the same first reaction? [1] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/
- sqeaky 9y agoDisease from Mosquitoes pose such a large threat that even if this goes terribly it will still likely be a benefit.
- sillysaurus3 9y agoSo what’s the plan to get rid of them? Verily’s male mosquitos were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which is harmless to humans but when they mate with and infect their female counterparts, it makes their eggs unable to produce offspring. Thank goodness. We can't eliminate mosquitoes fast enough. Wildlife will probably find other food sources, so bring on the weapons of mosquito destruction.
- Cpoll 9y agoTo supplement this, the article says: > This particular mosquito species entered the area in 2013. Although the scientific consensus I usually read on the topic of eradicating mosquitoes is that it won't destabilize any ecosystem.
- dccoolgai 9y agothat we know of Natural systems are like huge codebases built by novices. That variable you are changing shouldn't cause the whole system to collapse, but... see cases like the Cane Toad in Australia.
- sqeaky 9y agoI don't really care it does disrupt an ecosystem, because the total disruption will be reduced. Humans suffering from horrible diseases disrupt much. Disease is one of several things that keep people in poverty. People dying is expensive and causes a reduction in skill and investment in trying to save those suffering. Then there is the emotional cost of death by disease. People in poverty do shortsighted things like clearcut jungles to grow food. That previous argument totally ignores any value judgment. Values judgments like how I value humans more than ecosystems so shitty as to be disruptable by removing 1 parasitic species. Malaria is one of the single most dangerous things to humanity, ever. Killing mosquitoes deal with the problem. The amount of innovation, art and good works lost because of people who died to malaria is staggering. At modern rates it kill more than a million people per year. With that amount of lost effort not lost we could build hundreds of ecosystems.
- jimrandomh 9y agoThis is called the sterile insect technique, and it is a well-established practice for getting rid of mosquito populations that could threaten humans. It is very safe, both to humans (male mosquitoes don't bite) and ecologically (species other than mosquitoes aren't affected at all). It sounds like Google is working on improvements to the process. This is important work, because mosquitos are a major cause of disease, especially in Africa, and we haven't been able to fully solve the problem with existing technology.
- XFrequentist 9y agoI'm pretty sure wolbachia prevents viral replication, not reproduction of the mosquito. The article confuses this too, talking about elimination of the mosquito from the area (or I'm just missing something).
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- avip 9y agowolbachia prevents (sexual) reproduction in various insects by a process called "Cytoplasmic incompatibility". This requires infected male to fertilize a non-infected female. <disclaimer: IANAB>
- dsp1234 9y ago"Other researchers are experimenting with Wolbachia as a means of suppressing Aedes mosquito populations. This approach involves the release of only male mosquitoes with Wolbachia. When these mosquitoes mate with wild female mosquitoes without Wolbachia, they are unable to reproduce. The technique requires the release of a large number of male mosquitoes to reduce the overall mosquito population. As with insecticides, this technique would need to be reapplied over time as the population of mosquitoes gradually returns."[0] [0] - http://www.eliminatedengue.com/our-research/wolbachia http://www.eliminatedengue.com/our-research/wolbachia
- jimrandomh 9y agoThe article links to the project's announcement, https://blog.verily.com/2017/07/debug-fresno-our-first-us-field-study.html https://blog.verily.com/2017/07/debug-fresno-our-first-us-fi... , which says > "Debug Fresno will target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can transmit diseases like Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. Aedes aegypti first appeared in the central valley of California in 2013, and since then has become pervasive in Fresno County. This study will be the largest U.S. release to-date of sterile male mosquitoes treated with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacterium, and will take place over a 20 week period in two neighborhoods each approximately 300 acres in size. When these sterile males mate with wild females the resulting eggs will not hatch." So it's targeting the mosquitoes themselves, not just the viruses they carry.
- tcbawo 9y agoI can't wait until the day we start releasing solar powered the mosquito-hunting drones.
- logfromblammo 9y agoI don't know about drones, but there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser .
- Raphael 9y agoWhat an unfortunate headline.
- cooper12 9y agoIt's done on purpose. This is what we call clickbait.
- WaxProlix 9y agoI recall hearing when I was younger that mosquitoes were an outlier in the natural world. With most species, the balance of any food web would be pretty thoroughly disrupted by a major culling. As I heard it, this isn't the case for mosquitoes - if you could press a button and kill them all tomorrow, most ecosystems would be largely unimpacted. Am I just making this up/misremembering it? Edit: found a few sources. Pro-mosquitocide: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoes-zika-virus-environment-science-animals/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoes... Anti-mosquitocide: http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if-every-mosquito-on-earth-went-extinct-tomorrow-1646840383 http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if-every-mosquito-on-earth-went-...
- takeda 9y agoI can only confirm that I heard that as well, but have no idea how true it is.
- soperj 9y agoMosquitoes are also pollinators. I believe orchids are one flower that is mostly pollinated by mosquitoes.
- teddyg1 9y agoIn this case, the particular species that carries Zika (aedes aegypti) does not pollinate any plant species in any meaningful way.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoI believe I recall reading that if we were to eliminate only the disease carry mosquitoes, those responsible for transmitting maleria, dengue fever, Ross river virus) there ought not be a problem in the ecological web of life as other mosquitoes would fill the void.
- SubiculumCode 9y ago
- kuschku 9y ago[As apparently people prefer hyping Google over questioning why a corporation has to do this in the first place, this comment has been deleted]
- cbhl 9y agoAmericans could start by having their government actually do the things a government does, rather than shoving it on the backs of autocratic companies. Like providing its citizens with health care.
- charlieflowers 9y agoInteresting point. If you let your imagination run wild a bit, you start to wonder if Google can put trackers in the mosquitoes, or if they can somehow show ads.
- kuschku 9y agoPart of my (now deleted, due to heavily downvoted) argument was with the issue that if we rely on corporations to take on more and more responsibilities of governments, we’re also giving away a major part of power. Governments are supposed to be controlled democratically, but if we rely on corporations – especially ones like Google, where the two founders retain absolute control over the company – we’re replacing them piece by piece with autocratic entities. Google is currently doing a lot of good stuff, and so are many other companies, but this is a question that may become an issue in the long term; often once the founders are out, their less idealistic children run the company far worse, and try to gain as much profit as possible. You wouldn’t want a Google that’s run like Comcast with the power Google has.
- cbhl 9y agoThere is a large segment of the US population that has the opposite thesis; i.e. that if we give more responsibility to government, we are giving a way a major part of power. Do you feel just as strongly about charitable donations from Warren Buffet? Bill Gates? Mark Zuckerburg? Jeff Bezos?
- sxates 9y ago"You don't understand. I didn't kill just one mosquito, or a hundred, or a thousand... I killed them all... all mosquito... everywhere."
- chrisdone 9y agoDresden Files reference. Excellent.
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoThis is a Star Trek: The Next Generation reference, circa 1989! If the Dresden Files (circa 2000) used such a line, they were, in fact, making a reference. ;) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Survivors_(episode)#Memorable_quotes http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Survivors_(episode)#M...
- forgottenacc57 9y agoWhat could possibly go wrong? (Eye roll)
- pishpash 9y agoWhat would go wrong (almost forced to) is inevitably the creation of mosquito populations resistant to this bacterium or bacteria that infect other hosts than those mosquitos. Don't underestimate life.
- trhway 9y ago>What could possibly go wrong? (Eye roll) Any perceived correlation between Zika outbreaks (like 2013 French Polynesia, 2015-2016 Brazil) and those modified mosquito releases (like 2010 French Polynesia, 2011-2014 Brazil) is probably just pure coincidence. Even more coincidental is that ~15 years ago the islands 300 km from Gabon were specifically identified as the best isolated places to test the modified mosquitoes and the 2007 Zika outbreak in Gabon, one of the first major outbreaks (another one was in the same 2007 half a world from Gabon - on remote island Yap :).
- estebank 9y agoCould it not be that the correlation is that geographical regions with higher incidence of Aedes Aegypti would have higher likelihood of having Zika outbreaks and would also have local governments more inclined to pursue mosquito reduction efforts?
- polskibus 9y agoGoogle, while you're at it, please find a way to eradicate ticks. They are getting more and more irritating and dangerous in Northern Europe!
- hordeallergy 9y agoClothes moths are another which would be a good match for extinction.
- hutzlibu 9y agoI second that, as I tend to be in the forest a lot. And even though I love nature, I am pretty sure, eco-cycles can do without ticks ...
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoThey are really bad here in the Midwest US this summer (it's been consistently hot and wet). I have removed like 11 from the total of myself, my wife, my dog (accounts for 7 of the total, even on tick meds), and my son. Last year it was 2.
- polskibus 9y agoThat is irritating, but ticks can pretty much end your life if you get rougher version of boreliosis or brain damaging infection (I forgot its name).
- kileywm 9y agoI think you're referring to Lyme disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoFortunately they seem to be all dog ticks around here, not the Lyme-disease carrying deer ticks: http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/dog_tick http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/dog_tick However, that information only helps some people feel comforted when they find a tick on their person or in their home.
- LinuxBender 9y agoDoes this prevent reproduction of the mosquitos, or of the disease? If mosquitos, will this have a negative impact on bats? My bats eat mosquitos and moths, but there are not many moths any more.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoMosquitoes, I think. These are an intrusive species, new to the area, so probably not a primary food source.
- davesque 9y agoI'm aware that this is a known technique and thought has been given to whether or not it will impact the food chain, etc. But I do wonder this: has anyone considered what the effect will be of removing this constant source of stimulation for our immune systems?
- chipperyman573 9y agoDo normal (non-infected) mosquito bites do much for your immune system? I know it will have an effect (because every action has an effect) but will it even be noticeable?
- davesque 9y agoBoth good questions.
- mejari 9y agoAs mentioned in the article, this species only appeared in the area 4 years ago, so I doubt removing them would be an issue to our immune system.
- davesque 9y agoTrue. But I feel like some of the rhetoric I see in these comments touches on the idea of eliminating all mosquitos.
- heurist 9y agoOr the possible transference of non-harmful or beneficial bacteria?
- technofiend 9y agoRisk vs. Reward. Even if you could argue some benefit from the "immune system stimulation" straw man, I guarantee you the benefits from eliminating the vector for debilating and in some cases fatal diseases far, far outweigh the risks.
- 9y ago
- SubiculumCode 9y agoI wish they'd do it in Sacramento where most of the mosquitoes live.
- amorphid 9y agoReminds of when UC Riverside released some stingless wasps to prey on a whitefly infestation in Southern California. This was in the early 1990s. I think this paper is relevant, but I only scanned it: http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/repositoryfiles/ca5106p5-67707.pdf http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/repositoryfiles/ca5106p5-67707...
- chris_wot 9y agoAt least they aren't attempting to go viral.
- unclebucknasty 9y agoWait. Is there no regulation around this? Any company or individual can cook up whatever specimen they want and simply release it into the environment en masse? Am I missing something?
- pishpash 9y agoSomewhere down the line this will makes a mockery of customs agricultural inspections when you can just download the plan for a foreign organism and materialize it in your neighborhood.
- a_imho 9y agoAgreed, the article handwaves away the legal aspects which imo is more interesting than the actual mosquito engineering in this case.
- Oletros 9y agoThey are working with Fresno County [0] [0] http://www.mosquitobuzz.net/ http://www.mosquitobuzz.net/
- unclebucknasty 9y agoAh. Thanks.
- stanislavb 9y agoAll good. Yet I thought that was a responsibility of the gov... A big corp spending millions for free seems, you know, questionable
- protomyth 9y agoGovernments hire companies (contractors) to do work that is well outside the standard city services (well, sometimes they even hire companies to do the normal city services). This is just Google paying for a trial for the city. I'm sure they will later charge other cities so it looks like most hired contractors that a city uses.
- kuschku 9y agoPart of the question is if we should rely on a single company for so many different things. A company that’s controlled by only two people. This is maybe not an issue today, but what happens once the founders die and their inheritors take over control? Children of founders tend to purely focus on profit, and such a focus might lead to a Google led in the way Comcast is led today. And I don’t want to see a Google, Amazon, etc – likely even larger than now – with such leadership. Ideally we wouldn’t leave that much power to such a low number of people we can’t even elect.
- atbentley 9y agoMosquito surpression is an ongoing effort. For now it is free, but it will transition to a subscription service at some point.
- pcollins123 9y agoGoogle is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in Fresno... wearing small cameras and a projector that can display text advertisements
- ultim8k 9y agoI came up with this idea last year! I didn't know someone was already building it.
- teddyg1 9y agoCan someone with knowledge of this particular experiment explain how they've overcome the regulations that have stopped Oxitec / Intrexon with their aedes aegypti solution? They key regulatory factors cited against Oxitec, especially in their Florida Keys trials in the past year, were centered around controlling for the release of only males (which do not bite humans), thus avoiding transmission of any kind from the genetically modified varieties, or bacterially modified varieties in this case. Oxitec has worked for years to filter their mosquitoes so only ~0.2% of the released mosquitoes are female[1]. They then had to demonstrate that and more in many trials before being allowed to release their mosquitoes in the wild in Panama and Florida. Otherwise, it's great that Google can overstep the other factors that would stop this solution like NIMBYism and working with county / municipal boards. These solutions are great. [1]:http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/florida-voters-weigh-gm-mosquito-releases-what-are-issues http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/florida-voters-weigh-...
- unclebucknasty 9y agoInteresting article. It's also loaded with a lot of "we're not sure", "we'll have to watch that closely", and "we don't believe it's a problem".
- apendleton 9y agoIt's mostly because circuitous jurisdictional turf battles. The bacterial approach involves applying something to the mosquitos to kill them, rather than modifying the mosquitos, so it apparently counts as a pesticide, which puts it under EPA purview. Producing genetically modified animals is subject to FDA review instead. Apparently the EPA has a lighter touch, as the Wolbachia mosquitoes got approved by the EPA for use in the same area that was originally going to be the site of an Oxitec test in the Keys that got squashed by the FDA. See https://phys.org/news/2017-04-florida-bacteria-infected-mosquitoes-bugs.html https://phys.org/news/2017-04-florida-bacteria-infected-mosq...
- efgrbgfrf 9y agoSergio Benitez
- yosito 9y agoIt's interesting that Google is doing this rather than some government organization. What's Google's motivation? Is it purely altruistic, a PR move, an experiment, or does it have some direct benefit to them?
- pishpash 9y agoMaybe the mythical 20% time is back. Or they want Zika to stay out of their self-insurance pool. Googly Googs gonna goog.
- halflings 9y ago20% time was never removed, it was always in place. (there was just some miscommunication about this I guess since people here keep saying it was removed) And this is something done by Verily, not Google (even if it's an Alphabet company)
- briandear 9y agoFirst they came for the mosquitos, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a mosquito. Next they came for the invasive fire ants and then we all cheered because mosquitos and fire ants were finally gone.
- Harelin 9y agoFor those of us who live in Fresno and are curious as to which neighborhoods are being targeted: Harlan Ranch and Fancher Creek. They say "communities outside of these areas will not be affected."
- dzink 9y agoFrom what is explained so far, this process doesn't kill mosquitoes. It just makes sure that some of the females (that reproduce 5 times in a life of 2 weeks as an adult) get fertilized with unproductive eggs. http://www.denguevirusnet.com/life-cycle-of-aedes-aegypti.html http://www.denguevirusnet.com/life-cycle-of-aedes-aegypti.ht... The eggs of aedes aegypti can be spread anywhere and the fertile hatch whenever their area gets wet in the next year or so. Does anyone know what % population reduction impact this process results in? They'd have males likely die after 2 weeks and that just wipes the reproductive chances of the females in that period. Google is treating for 20 weeks in dry weather, which is not exactly the peak reproductive season of this mosquito.
- will_pseudonym 9y agoWhat could possibly go wrong?
- azakai 9y agoWhy is "Google" in the title? The only connection between Google and this company is that they share a parent company, Alphabet.
- WalterBright 9y agoI'm curious how mosquitoes will evolve to beat this.
- danieltillett 9y agoHopefully by going extinct. Not all evolutionary challenges are solved by the organism before extinction.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- RobLach 9y agoJust want to point out that a megacorp breeding and releasing a sterilization disease is pretty sci-fi. Also a mutation away from a Children of Men style dystopia.
- markburns 9y agoDoes anyone know why the mosquitoes wouldn't evolve to be repulsed by others infected in this way? Or is this a similar class of problem to antibiotics becoming useless over time? I.e. it's useful to do now so let's cross that bridge if we come to it? Or is there something else I don't understand about this?
- makkesk8 9y agoI've never been interested in biology. But this is so cool! :O
- sjcsjc 9y ago"Verily, the life science’s arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has hatched a plan to release a ..." My immediate reaction on reading that sentence was to wonder why they'd written it in some kind of Shakespearean English. My next reaction was to feel stupid.
- roywiggins 9y agoIs there a startup named Hwæt yet?
- walshemj 9y agocould we have a less clickbaity title
- vinitagr 9y agoThis is some real breakthrough. I don't remember i have heard of anything like this before. Any amount of success with this solution will have a lot of consequences on other problems.
- Keyframe 9y agoUnlike other questions, I'm interested in logistics behind this. How do you produce 20m mosquitos and where do you hold them? How do you transport them and how do you release them? How do you 'store' them and when releasing are most harmed, are they 'sprayed' or you 'open a box and they will go by themselves'? How do you decide where to release them? Is it all at once (1m per week) or is there a pattern, is it related to wind... so many questions!! I wan't a documentary "How it's made: Mosquitocide". I'm willing to make one if someone can provide access to info and logistics.
- mrschwabe 9y agoNo one should have the right to play god with our biosphere.
- Ninn 9y agoYes they should. Next you're going to try and tell us that we shouldn't utilise modern medicine and vaccinations?
- mrschwabe 9y agoWell you certainly don't have the right to make me use modern medicine or take vaccinations. Just as I don't have the right to spray herbicide on your lawn. Even if there are weeds.
- pcmaffey 9y agoHas any research been done on potential benefits of widespread micro blood transfusion as a result of mosquitoes? The diseases are the obvious downside, wondering if resistances, etc may be an unrecognized upside.
- crimsonalucard 9y agoUnless this solution virtually slaughters every single mosquito wouldn't this technique only select out unfit mosquitos eventually leading to populations of mosquitos with genetic countermeasures to this method of eradication?
- jondubois 9y ago>> Verily’s male mosquitoes were infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, which is harmless to humans What they mean is; harmless in the short term and hopefully also harmless in the long term.
- banach 9y agoWhat could possibly go wrong?
- jackyb 9y agoI always wondered, how do they count so many mosquitos? Is there a technique to determine that it's 20M?
- honestoHeminway 9y agoSelf fertilizing mosquito female discovered. Oh, thats 2019. Sorry for spoiling.
- Tepix 9y agoSimilar project in Germany: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/tigermuecken-in-deutschland-tausende-sterile-maennchen-ausgesetzt-a-1158263.html http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/tigermuecken-in-deu... However they use gamma rays to sterilize the mosquitoes instead of bacteria.
- franga2000 9y agoI just love how people simply refuse to use the Alphabet name and keep calling it Google.