GM Mosquitos Could Eradicate Wild Populations By Only Producing Male Offspring

originally posted by: buster2010

originally posted by: GetHyped
a reply to: buster2010

Easy to say when it's not your herd being thinned.

That's nature not everything is happiness and sunshine.

Luckily we have the means to subvert nature, then.

March 2014

About 3.4 billion people – half of the world's population – are at risk of malaria. In 2012, there were about 207 million malaria cases (with an uncertainty range of 135 million to 287 million) and an estimated 627 000 malaria deaths (with an uncertainty range of 473 000 to 789 000). Increased prevention and control measures have led to a reduction in malaria mortality rates by 42% globally since 2000 and by 49% in the WHO African Region.

People living in the poorest countries are the most vulnerable to malaria. In 2012, 90% of all malaria deaths occurred in the WHO African Region, mostly among children under 5 years of age www.who.int...

Global burden of dengue fever

The incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Over 2.5 billion people – over 40% of the world's population – are now at risk from dengue. WHO currently estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year.

An estimated 500 000 people with severe dengue require hospitalization each year, a large proportion of whom are children. About 2.5% of those affected die. www.who.int...

Let the mosquitos die.

I hate mosquitoes as much as anybody, but I recognize that they play a vital role in the ecosystem of our planet. If we can't kill them off, can we at least modify them enough so that when they sting us it's not so damned itchy? That's all I'm asking for.

I've never understood why mosquitoes and biting flies have to make you itch when you bite. I wouldn't care if it didn't itch, they might just be an annoyance when they land on your face or swarm around your eyes and ears.

Until then, I'm all for any way to destroy the bastards. Especially yellow flies and mosquitoes.

well, there goes the swallow population......assholes!
Doesn't anyone think of second or third layer consequences up there in bossland?

a reply to: stirling

Care to explain how you came to that conclusion?

Flies of all types make up the majority of the Barn Swallow’s diet, along with beetles, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and other flying insects. Barn Swallows usually take relatively large, single insects rather than feeding on swarms of smaller prey. They will also pick up grit and small pebbles, or eggshells and oyster shells set out by humans, which may help the birds digest insects or add needed calcium to the diet.www.allaboutbirds.org...

the barn swallow consumes fewer aphids than the house or sand martins.[4] On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items. en.wikipedia.org...

Why do I get the feeling there is going to be a save the mosquito movement emerge?

I can see the slogan now "save a mosquito so it can kill a human" as well as it kills birds, bats, lizards and antelopes some even to extinction.

originally posted by: Aldakoopa
I've never understood why mosquitoes and biting flies have to make you itch when you bite. I wouldn't care if it didn't itch, they might just be an annoyance when they land on your face or swarm around your eyes and ears.

Until then, I'm all for any way to destroy the bastards. Especially yellow flies and mosquitoes.

Mosquitos don't actually bite when the stick their needle like beak into you they release an anti-coagulant into you so that your blood doesn't clot they then search around for a vein. The itching is a result of the anti-coagulant reacting with and a histamine your body produces the area around your blood vessels swell which causes you to itch.

If all they did was make yoy itch I think I could deal with their survival its the fact they cause so many deaths that I want them gone.