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If it reproduces by cloning, it should be relatively easy to eradicate at once. You only need one specimen...
by throwaway290 3y ago
If it reproduces by cloning, it should be relatively easy to eradicate at once. You only need one specimen...
- Jtsummers 3y ago"Can clone themselves" but they don't always. They're also capable of sexual reproduction. The asexual reproduction is the part that's letting them spread so rapidly, though. So, no, you don't just need one specimen.
- rf15 3y agoWhat kind of approach do you see here? Yes you can create an infinite amount of samples to test on, but you still have to deal with the millions of copies in the wild.
- throwaway290 3y agoIf it's a copy of the same thing then any measure that works against one would work against all. Other ways of reproduction add randomness and mutations which make it difficult
- closetnerd 3y agoPoint being you gotta get your measure to the millions of other clones.
- zimpenfish 3y ago> any measure that works against one would work against all Modulo any environmental or self-mutation factors, I suppose? Might be that a tick which sucks blood from deer with XYZ picks up a parasite or bacteria which protects it against your measure. Or one crawls through some chemical goop / radioactive slop / gets hit by a cosmic ray etc. and gets a mutation which helps. (Both fairly unlikely, I'll grant, but when you're dealing with millions or billions of ticks, unlikely is likely to happen a lot.)
- throwaway290 3y agoYeah it would be modulo those.
- Angostura 3y agoI don't see why that is true at all. Aphids reproduce through parthenogenesis, killing aphids is still tricky.
- wiz21c 3y agoyou mean parthogenesis ?
- Angostura 3y agoI meant parthenogenesis. Thanks, fixed!
- throwaway290 3y agoBeing able to reproduce by parthogenesis (in addition to reproduction via mating) is not the same as only reproducing by cloning.
- otikik 3y ago- No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese fire ants. They’ll wipe out the ticks. - But aren’t the ants even worse? - Yes, but we’re prepared for that. We’ve lined up a fabulous type of spider that thrives on ant meat. - But then we’re stuck with spiders! - No, that’s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the spiders simply freeze to death.
- Xylakant 3y agoEnter climate change and warming temperatures in winter.
- Ekaros 3y agoHave you seen any ticks on Venus or Mars? Didn't think so... So the climate change does solve the problem. Just have to take it far enough to combat these species.
- mettamage 3y agoThe US as a whole does not have cold winters. States like Florida would still have those spiders.
- hutzlibu 3y agoI don't understand this comment. Is it a joke? Why would the cloning matter? All of the clones can clone, which just means laying eggs without finding a mate.
- amelius 3y agoProbably because we know its entire genome?
- hutzlibu 3y agoSo you propose a genetically engeneered virus or bacteria to be released into the wild?
- throwaway290 3y agoYou say it like it was not done before (like with mosquitoes), except now there would be more chance of success because they wouldn't unexpectedly mutate. But anyway another comment says these ticks also can repro sexually so whatever
- Ekaros 3y agoWeren't mosquitoes about infertility? Making infertile ones that can't effectively reproduce. With something that can clone itself that isn't much of an hurdle...
- throwaway290 3y agoThe catch is that by mating they can randomly evolve resistance to the thing that makes them infertile I guess?
- hutzlibu 3y agoCan you link to such a trial? I only know of gm modified new insects, to take over and die (they reproduce a lot, but their offspring dies, so other normal reproduce less). But of a manufactored virus or bacteria I have not heard yet. And I think it would be way more dangerous.