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I wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. If we could quantify that, and the outcome was enticing, we could re

I wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. If we could quantify that, and the outcome was enticing, we could release a bunch of genetically modified sterile mosquitoes that would quickly erase whole populations.

tokenadult 13y ago
I wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. A scientist has considered that issue, and the conclusion is that we could all live quite happily without any mosquitoes in the world. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Janet Fang is an intern in Nature's Washington DC office.
  - NoPiece 13y ago
    That is an incomplete summary of her credentials... Hello! I’m a freelance science journalist living in New York with my ball python, Agamemnon Fang. I spent the last few years as a marine geochemist by day, contributing editor for CBS SmartPlanet at night. Before that, I was a news intern for Nature in Washington, D.C., an editorial intern at Discover in New York, and a reporter for the infamous Point Reyes Light in West Marin, California. In 2008, I graduated from the Earth & Environmental Science and Journalism dual-master’s program at Columbia University. I conducted my Earth Science master’s research on, broadly speaking, Climate Change and Human Evolution at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where I used geochemical analyses to understand paleoclimatic changes in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. And for my Journalism master’s project — “Salamander Eggs and Hyena Phalluses” — I narrated the discoveries of two novel life histories (or biological oddities). At the University of California, Berkeley, I studied Integrative Biology (evolution and natural history) and English literature (19th-20th century novel and experimental fiction). I spent a couple years at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology as a georeferencer, a curatorial/field/research/lab assistant, and I skinned and stuffed birds and rodents. (You can also find my immortalized birds at the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and Yale Peabody Museum.) http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/ http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      Rather than summarize her credentials, I was attempting to point out that perhaps an intern writer at Nature.com is not someone we can refer to as "a scientist" and reference as such. Yes, she has a degree and experience. No, I'm not prepared to accept interns 2 years out of college as authoritative experts when it comes to planetwide ecological policy.
      - NoPiece 13y ago
        If you just say "intern" the inference is high school or college student. So it is an indirect attack on her credibility. She may not be an authority, but by quoting more of her bio, it at least gives better perspective.
      - tokenadult 13y ago
        How do you know I wasn't referring to one of the scientists she interviewed for the article, more than one of whom suggested that we could live without mosquitoes?
donutdan4114 13y ago
Why would releasing sterile mosquitoes help erase the population? Do they eat each other or something?
- bonzoesc 13y ago
  Sterilize & release programs for feral cats work; the sterilized cats compete for the same resources as unsterilized ones, but are more effective and longer-lived because they don't have to support reproduction. This not only means that the sterilized cats won't reproduce, but the unsterilized ones will have a harder time, and reproduce less. It works better than trapping & killing.
  - cicero 13y ago
    Very interesting. That's what we're also doing to human populations.
  - jbattle 13y ago
    it has to be said - if non-sterile mosquitos are having a hard time surviving because sterile mosquitos drank up all the blood - we're probably going to suffer more than they will
    - byroot 13y ago
      Only female mosquitos drink blood.
      - b0rsuk 13y ago
        And only when they need to make eggs, as the article says. What most people don't know is that mosquitoes mostly survive on flower pollen.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    It seems likely that capturing cats, sterilizing them, and releasing them would have a larger impact than simply releasing a large number of sterile cats. It's also much easier to do in appreciable numbers, relative to the wild population, and it doesn't actually lead to extinction, just some additional population control. I don't think it is a good fit for mosquitos. I once heard a modified version of the plan, where you release male mosquitos with a "driving Y chromisome" - that is, a Y chromisome with a mutation that leads to male offspring. Supposedly this should spread in a population even when but eventually leads to extinction.
peeters 13y ago
How would a GM but sterile mosquito help? It can't pass its unique trait to offspring.
- pikewood 13y ago
  The sterile males compete with the rest of the population, which drops off the population as mating produces no offspring. This has been attempted with good results in several cases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14422440 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14422440 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique
  - peeters 13y ago
    Ok, that's how I thought it would work (though "genetically modified" might be the wrong term here, as in those cases sterility comes from direct processes like radiation). I'm astonished that it would be considered feasible given the magnitude of the mosquito population (I'm assuming at least trillions). To cut the mosquito population in half for a generation, you'd need to replace half of the males on the planet, would you not? Or at least make half of the females choose to mate with the modified males. Then rinse and repeat.
Bognar 13y ago
It would take quite the concerted effort over a long period of time. Mosquito eggs can lay dormant for 10-15 years.
makeset 13y ago
Hate those buggers so much, I'd have no problem with this even if we'd also go extinct.
rorrr2 13y ago
Hawaii didn't have mosquitoes until they were brought with ships. The ecosystem did just fine without them.

tokenadult 13y ago

I wonder what the impact of completely eliminating mosquitoes from the ecosystem would be. A scientist has considered that issue, and the conclusion is that we could all live quite happily without any mosquitoes in the world. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

sliverstorm 13y ago
Janet Fang is an intern in Nature's Washington DC office.
- NoPiece 13y ago
  That is an incomplete summary of her credentials... Hello! I’m a freelance science journalist living in New York with my ball python, Agamemnon Fang. I spent the last few years as a marine geochemist by day, contributing editor for CBS SmartPlanet at night. Before that, I was a news intern for Nature in Washington, D.C., an editorial intern at Discover in New York, and a reporter for the infamous Point Reyes Light in West Marin, California. In 2008, I graduated from the Earth & Environmental Science and Journalism dual-master’s program at Columbia University. I conducted my Earth Science master’s research on, broadly speaking, Climate Change and Human Evolution at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where I used geochemical analyses to understand paleoclimatic changes in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. And for my Journalism master’s project — “Salamander Eggs and Hyena Phalluses” — I narrated the discoveries of two novel life histories (or biological oddities). At the University of California, Berkeley, I studied Integrative Biology (evolution and natural history) and English literature (19th-20th century novel and experimental fiction). I spent a couple years at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology as a georeferencer, a curatorial/field/research/lab assistant, and I skinned and stuffed birds and rodents. (You can also find my immortalized birds at the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and Yale Peabody Museum.) http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/ http://janetfang.wordpress.com/about/
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    Rather than summarize her credentials, I was attempting to point out that perhaps an intern writer at Nature.com is not someone we can refer to as "a scientist" and reference as such. Yes, she has a degree and experience. No, I'm not prepared to accept interns 2 years out of college as authoritative experts when it comes to planetwide ecological policy.
    - NoPiece 13y ago
      If you just say "intern" the inference is high school or college student. So it is an indirect attack on her credibility. She may not be an authority, but by quoting more of her bio, it at least gives better perspective.
    - tokenadult 13y ago
      How do you know I wasn't referring to one of the scientists she interviewed for the article, more than one of whom suggested that we could live without mosquitoes?

donutdan4114 13y ago

Why would releasing sterile mosquitoes help erase the population? Do they eat each other or something?

bonzoesc 13y ago
Sterilize & release programs for feral cats work; the sterilized cats compete for the same resources as unsterilized ones, but are more effective and longer-lived because they don't have to support reproduction. This not only means that the sterilized cats won't reproduce, but the unsterilized ones will have a harder time, and reproduce less. It works better than trapping & killing.
- cicero 13y ago
  Very interesting. That's what we're also doing to human populations.
- jbattle 13y ago
  it has to be said - if non-sterile mosquitos are having a hard time surviving because sterile mosquitos drank up all the blood - we're probably going to suffer more than they will
  - byroot 13y ago
    Only female mosquitos drink blood.
    - b0rsuk 13y ago
      And only when they need to make eggs, as the article says. What most people don't know is that mosquitoes mostly survive on flower pollen.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  It seems likely that capturing cats, sterilizing them, and releasing them would have a larger impact than simply releasing a large number of sterile cats. It's also much easier to do in appreciable numbers, relative to the wild population, and it doesn't actually lead to extinction, just some additional population control. I don't think it is a good fit for mosquitos. I once heard a modified version of the plan, where you release male mosquitos with a "driving Y chromisome" - that is, a Y chromisome with a mutation that leads to male offspring. Supposedly this should spread in a population even when but eventually leads to extinction.

peeters 13y ago

How would a GM but sterile mosquito help? It can't pass its unique trait to offspring.

pikewood 13y ago
The sterile males compete with the rest of the population, which drops off the population as mating produces no offspring. This has been attempted with good results in several cases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14422440 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14422440 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique
- peeters 13y ago
  Ok, that's how I thought it would work (though "genetically modified" might be the wrong term here, as in those cases sterility comes from direct processes like radiation). I'm astonished that it would be considered feasible given the magnitude of the mosquito population (I'm assuming at least trillions). To cut the mosquito population in half for a generation, you'd need to replace half of the males on the planet, would you not? Or at least make half of the females choose to mate with the modified males. Then rinse and repeat.

Bognar 13y ago

It would take quite the concerted effort over a long period of time. Mosquito eggs can lay dormant for 10-15 years.

makeset 13y ago

Hate those buggers so much, I'd have no problem with this even if we'd also go extinct.

rorrr2 13y ago

Hawaii didn't have mosquitoes until they were brought with ships. The ecosystem did just fine without them.