Your comment seems to be to be touching on the ethics of "eradicating" insect pests ("that is not a bar cleared"), rather than the ethics of advancing genetic e

Your comment seems to be to be touching on the ethics of "eradicating" insect pests ("that is not a bar cleared"), rather than the ethics of advancing genetic engineering in general (or specifically of reproduction capabilities). Having written that first comment: I was merely wondering aloud – without doing a tour du Google myself – whether such genetic intervention would be possible at all. I cannot see many problems with sterilizing pest animals, as long as we don't define pests so strictly as to include any nuisance. For example, in cities in The Netherlands, feral pigeons are sterilized when population numbers increase too much. The article about the lanternfly also clearly specifies that small populations of lanternflies do not pose a problem. Any intervention would not need to "eradicate" lanternflies from the earth. Perhaps you are referring to the suggestion of 'improving' the to strategy to produce non-viable offspring. What is your own opinion on these matters?