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This is why Verily's https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/ project is so interesting. The idea is to create modified mosquitoes that can't bite or breed and re

This is why Verily's https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/ project is so interesting. The idea is to create modified mosquitoes that can't bite or breed and release them to "breed" with the general populous thus neutralizing them.

jschwartzi 6y ago
Another way we can control mosquitoes is by making sure the native bird populations are healthy. Where I live tree and bank swallows eat tons and tons of mosquitoes and other bugs every year which helps control the population. I wouldn't recommend releasing these birds elsewhere because they may not have any natural predators but surely where there are tons of mosquitoes there are also predators of mosquitoes as well. Otherwise this reminds me of well-meaning efforts to control erosion by planting Kudzu or Himalayan Blackberry everywhere. Ultimately they just become an invasive species. And I could also see eradicating mosquitoes as removing a food species for many other animals. This is a really bad idea.
- throwaway894345 6y ago
  Is this true? I recall looking into this and finding that swallows, bats, and other "mosquito predators" don't put a dent in mosquito populations (mosquitoes are numerous and only account for a negligible percentage of these predators' diets).
  - colechristensen 6y ago
    The right question is "How significant is this?" because of course predators have an effect on prey population dynamics, but the question is what effect and how big. >We conclude that predators and parasites have a limited but significant effect on overall mosquito populations, and their role should be considered when implementing habitat management, mosquito control and when modeling mosquito population dynamics. From a study http://e-m-b.org/sites/e-m-b.org/files/European_Mosquito_Bulletin_Publications811/EMB25/EMB25_1.pdf http://e-m-b.org/sites/e-m-b.org/files/European_Mosquito_Bul...
    - throwaway894345 6y ago
      That’s great news if it is significant. Everything I had previously read indicated that their impact was negligible. I hate mosquitos, so I hope your link is correct.
baybal2 6y ago
Malaria can be eradicated by timely treatment, and quarantine. There are countries that defeated malaria with nothing more than that.
dubcanada 6y ago
What's to say something strange doesn't happen with these "modified mosquitoes" and we somehow engineer a super mosquitos or kill off 4 other species accidentally. I really want to believe that doing this would be something that humans should explore, but I think the chance of something going wrong is fairly high. Considering our rather terrible track record with stuff like this (weapons, pesticides, etc). It often takes decades to truly see how it works, so while we may end the mosquitos problem we may make ourselves a worse one.
- colechristensen 6y ago
  The whole superhero mosquito thing is pretty solidly unlikely. For starters these things are tested in closed environments (already has been done many times). The worst you might expect is it not working at all. Also, the mosquito lifecycle is as little as a week or two from egg to egg. The process would be rather fast.
toshk 6y ago
Thinking of ways to reduce mosquitos populations are understandable, and many organisations are working on them, but this proposition to completely eradicate them, mainly with certain technologies, is borderline insanity. The problems eradication solves are obvious and important to solve. The problems eradication might cause are less obvious and are potentially disastrous.
- colechristensen 6y ago
  There are thousands of species of mosquito, dozens of which transmit malaria, and only a handful which do it really well. Many of the mosquitos are invasive species anyway. The point being, there are many many of species which would fill up the ecological niche left if we extincted a few.
  - toshk 6y ago
    Im surprised with how much certainty you make such a claim. Next to that it's not only the side effect of extinction of one species, but also the unforeseen side effects of the technologies used to accomplish this (extreme) extinction. The whole point of technologists is that they really have to much faith that we both understand these complex ecosystems and complex technologies we just started using. To try to put a technology on grand scale that you don't fully understand and can't control once in the wild is really stupid.

jschwartzi 6y ago

Another way we can control mosquitoes is by making sure the native bird populations are healthy. Where I live tree and bank swallows eat tons and tons of mosquitoes and other bugs every year which helps control the population. I wouldn't recommend releasing these birds elsewhere because they may not have any natural predators but surely where there are tons of mosquitoes there are also predators of mosquitoes as well. Otherwise this reminds me of well-meaning efforts to control erosion by planting Kudzu or Himalayan Blackberry everywhere. Ultimately they just become an invasive species. And I could also see eradicating mosquitoes as removing a food species for many other animals. This is a really bad idea.

throwaway894345 6y ago
Is this true? I recall looking into this and finding that swallows, bats, and other "mosquito predators" don't put a dent in mosquito populations (mosquitoes are numerous and only account for a negligible percentage of these predators' diets).
- colechristensen 6y ago
  The right question is "How significant is this?" because of course predators have an effect on prey population dynamics, but the question is what effect and how big. >We conclude that predators and parasites have a limited but significant effect on overall mosquito populations, and their role should be considered when implementing habitat management, mosquito control and when modeling mosquito population dynamics. From a study http://e-m-b.org/sites/e-m-b.org/files/European_Mosquito_Bulletin_Publications811/EMB25/EMB25_1.pdf http://e-m-b.org/sites/e-m-b.org/files/European_Mosquito_Bul...
  - throwaway894345 6y ago
    That’s great news if it is significant. Everything I had previously read indicated that their impact was negligible. I hate mosquitos, so I hope your link is correct.

baybal2 6y ago

Malaria can be eradicated by timely treatment, and quarantine. There are countries that defeated malaria with nothing more than that.

dubcanada 6y ago

What's to say something strange doesn't happen with these "modified mosquitoes" and we somehow engineer a super mosquitos or kill off 4 other species accidentally. I really want to believe that doing this would be something that humans should explore, but I think the chance of something going wrong is fairly high. Considering our rather terrible track record with stuff like this (weapons, pesticides, etc). It often takes decades to truly see how it works, so while we may end the mosquitos problem we may make ourselves a worse one.

colechristensen 6y ago
The whole superhero mosquito thing is pretty solidly unlikely. For starters these things are tested in closed environments (already has been done many times). The worst you might expect is it not working at all. Also, the mosquito lifecycle is as little as a week or two from egg to egg. The process would be rather fast.

toshk 6y ago

Thinking of ways to reduce mosquitos populations are understandable, and many organisations are working on them, but this proposition to completely eradicate them, mainly with certain technologies, is borderline insanity. The problems eradication solves are obvious and important to solve. The problems eradication might cause are less obvious and are potentially disastrous.

colechristensen 6y ago
There are thousands of species of mosquito, dozens of which transmit malaria, and only a handful which do it really well. Many of the mosquitos are invasive species anyway. The point being, there are many many of species which would fill up the ecological niche left if we extincted a few.
- toshk 6y ago
  Im surprised with how much certainty you make such a claim. Next to that it's not only the side effect of extinction of one species, but also the unforeseen side effects of the technologies used to accomplish this (extreme) extinction. The whole point of technologists is that they really have to much faith that we both understand these complex ecosystems and complex technologies we just started using. To try to put a technology on grand scale that you don't fully understand and can't control once in the wild is really stupid.