8 ms·

Don't get too excited. We don't know the full story on the 2% that lived. For all we know, they could become tomorrow's 20% that developed pesticide resistanc

• ScoJoh 7y ago
  That was exactly my thought. It's like DDT on Mosquitoes. The ones that survived were resistant, so when they bred, all their offspring were resistant. Could end up being the same issue here, so this could easily become a FAR FAR worse issue in the next generation or two of these worms.
  • papreclip 7y ago
    My brother worked in a mosquito lab for a while and said that mosquitos lose these resistances pretty quickly (as a population) if they aren't regularly being dosed. In the absence of pesticide, the more efficient organism is generally the one without whatever metabolic fluke made it immune to the poison. The lab helped inform the city's strategy for fighting mosquitos, which was to rotate pesticides. I believe they also bred and released neutered mosquitos.
  • RealityVoid 7y ago
    Is it _far far_ worse though? It seems to me it should become just as worse as without any woking pesticide, only later.
• forgotmypw3 7y ago
  I sure hope so, because the poison is spreading all over the planet, and if insects don't develop resistance fast, they'll die out, along with everything else up the food chain.
• ian0 7y ago
  >The number of generations a moth will have in a year varies based on climate, but in her life span a female will typically lay about 1,500 eggs From wikipedia.