Biotech company secretly releases millions of GM mosquitoes in Cayman Islands

Wow, simply crazy. Why on earth do we keep doing things like this?

The head of mankind is too large for its shoulders. The inevitable toppling over due to such pride is terrifying and the end is almost desirable because of it.

Raist

Originally posted by quest4info
reply to post by Iamonlyhuman

 

Exactly, when birds eat these male mosquitos will that GM crap effect their reproduction also.

No, its more than very unlikely, b/c, when any animal digests the remains of another, the enzymes within its digestive tract break the protein of the victim down into the simplest building blocks of life, which are then reassembled by the consuming animals cells into the proteins it requires. This is a very specific chemical process whereby only the proper building blocks can be formed into the chains of ribonucleic acid derivatives that form the protein chains. Errors occur almost exclusively through the original gene being damaged by radiation, chemical carcinogens or old age shortening the chains. So it just doesn't matter what the food source is, if it can be broken down into usable building blocks, it depends on the existing genes as to what those building blocks can be made into.
However, the genetic factor that cannot be known in advance is what type of viruses can spring up from fragments of altered RNA, particularly if a fragment is a good match for a building block that an existing virus already requires to be replicated. Of course, some viruses also damage the DNA of host cells, so its not impossible for a mutant insect to be the cause of a virus that doesn't badly harm, or even affect, the insect or its predator, but may prove utterly deadly to another species... like us!
I just wish we would stop trying to use cheap fixes for problems that are essentially political. Humans have been living with dengue fever & malaria for millenia. We have drugs that can prevent them. Do we actually need to risk messing with our biosphere just to avoid the rich getting just a little less richer so that people have access to these drugs?

I seem to remember a verse in the bible ( revelation maybe ) that talks of locusts with mens heads

i'll look it up


And the shapes of the locusts [were] like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads [were] as it were crowns like gold, and their faces [were] as the faces of men. REVELATION 9:7

maybe some kind of reference to the man-made origin..........

*edit ---- i know the OP refers to mosquitos but i was attempting to hint at the possibility the verse above hints at a man-made plague.

reply to post by Reconciler


Those locusts are probably the next GM creation.

The excuse for creating them will be something like "if we give them human heads, they won't be able to eat our crops"...

Originally posted by munkey66
reply to post by snowspirit

 

the problem with the whole scenario is that the dengue fever spreading mosquito (Aedes aegypti) only lives around the house and do not breed in swamps, they prefer to breed around people in containers like pot plant bases and old tyres etc.....
the easiest way to fight dengue fever is to actually clean up around your own neighbourhood and remove anything that collects water, far cheaper than funding GM mosquitoes

Yes, but you can ensure a centralized solution much better than a communal one.

Great, that's all we need, ten times the amount of mosquitoes that exist now.

....

Some years back there was some news about this in Louisiana. From what I understood, they decided not to do this because it could possibly cause some serious problems all over state, including our wildlife reserves, and we have ALOT of reserves, very big ones, here in Louisiana. The main problem is, alot of wildlife feed on those bastard pests, and as much as we hate them... there are sooooo many here from our swamps, fields, woods, lakes, ect ect ect.. we still need them for our wildlife sake. There are species of ducks here that thrive on those pests almost exclusivly. One such duck is capable of feeding on litteraly hundreds of thousands of these things in a day.


Now, this is scary. Years later, Im seeing the very thing happen that they decided to not do because of problems comming from this very thing. What if they spread outside of the "confined" test zones? Why do we have a plague of killer bees from florida all the way down through mexico? It's stuff like this that makes me wonder why we even have a government. We could less damage without guidance.

This is truely insane! So many species thrive off of these things. Sure, they're probably the most hated bug out there, but there are ways to combat them without taking a huge risk of making them extinct!

Just... Wow!

Herein lies the pisser....You got lots of mosquitos?Then why not get lots of larvae ducks and barn swallows which eat their own wieght in mosquitos every day!
Work within the framework!
is that so hard to understand?
We can cause enough damage just trying to do that.....without overly upsetting the balances.
The absolute arrogance of these research people makes me wonder if they are mentally competent to be handling these responsibilities.....maybe they should be screened somehow by an independant psyche agency......
I believe it must come from the education system as well......too much science no common sense or respect for anything but cash.

OK the mosquito-syringe for 'global' innoculation is on the level of that Firefly movie "Serenity," where the "good intentions" for a whole planet killed all but the 10% it turned into monsters. Ah, good intentions . . . !

RC

well thas just it..stop playing god* 98% of all scientists dont belive in god. thas a fact. thiers onlye 3 o4 that belive in god.
regarding GM mosquios..well look at what happened with killer bees. they were tampered with, and kill off other colonys of normal bees. maybe thats what been happening to the bees over the past few years..killer bees killed alot of them, and started clone colonys*
maybe smae thing can happen with thse mosqiutos too..i read their larvae dies. but who knows! maybe they attack and bite yuo in huge swarms? thier needle mouth have ahigher risk of carrying other virus's and infections? theirs bound to be some life theatening flaw with them..small or big. tampering with nature is NOT a good thing*

Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons.....

We just violated it.


North Korea claimed we released similar biological entities in their country during the Korean War. Maybe we are just getting ready to do it again.

Should one day we no longer be the top dog on this planet we may be held accountable for what we've done.

I hope they kill them all! They are the #1 worst insect on the planet. Also considered the most dangerous. There are other things that can replace them on the food chain.

I really cannot stand the fact that, they have gotten so bad that you cannot sit outside and enjoy an evening. We were out for a fireworks display, and when we came home my 7yr old had welts the size of dimes all over from them, and we used repellent.

Yeah.. I doubt it's possible for these to end mosquitos as there are just ridiculous numbers, but released in mass everywhere, and over a long period of time this could be a problem. Mosquitos are pests, but they are an important food source for many other insects and animals (bats, frogs, dragonflies, etc).

All this GM stuff really makes me nervous. More so than any other conspiracy theories. Mostly the GM seeds that are sterile. If those got out of control it could lead to famine. Not to mention the terminator seeds force farmers to keep buying seeds from companies.

reply to post by xyankee


Wait you are worried about sitting watching fireworks because of mosquitoes? Yet you do not care about the ecosystems that rely on those very insects you want to destroy?

Nice to see priorities are set here. Screw the ecosystems as long as you are happy.

Not to mention the fact that if they are doing this sort of thing now…. What will they do later? What sort of experiment will they try that could poison the ones you love through very similar technology?

No one should be for this sort of thing. The dangers involved are scary at the very least and devastating at most. Mosquitoes might be a pest but they are in nature for a reason. Nature is better at controlling the planet than mankind ever has been. Mankind needs to try to stop playing God and let nature do its thing.

Raist

reply to post by Raist


I don’t disagree with you. But the problem we have where we live has already been caused by us. The construction has caused the water table to raise which in turn causes them to thrive. So something has to be done to reduce the population of them or stop the development. I don’t care what they do, as long as they do something. Do you realize that mosquitoes are the single most dangerous creature on the planet. That was what it was ranked on discovery channel, it is because of the decease it spreads.

Originally posted by xyankee
reply to post by Raist

 

The construction has caused the water table to raise which in turn causes them to thrive. So something has to be done to reduce the population of them or stop the development. I don’t care what they do, as long as they do something. Do you realize that mosquitoes are the single most dangerous creature on the planet. That was what it was ranked on discovery channel, it is because of the decease it spreads.

I'm one person on this thread that can totally sympathize with you. I'm in central Saskatchewan, where the temperatures go down below -40 celcius every winter, and it doesn't freeze out the mosquitoes. The moment there is any puddle thawing out, it's buzzing with mosquitoes. It doesn't even need to be warm anymore. Temperatures of 1 celcius are bringing them out. Plus we're dealing with West Nile disease up here. They developed a vaccine for horses, as it was killing them. It's killed a few people too, but they haven't figured out a safe vaccine for people or pets yet.

We have the prairies covered in protected wetland areas, but there aren't enough ducks, birds, frogs or anything else to make a dent in it. I don't wear DEET, but the people that do, are saying it doesn't work anymore. Mosquitoes are biting anyways. I was going out to do the lawn so covered in NEEM oil, that they were drowning in it, that only works if you're going out for a couple of hours. You have to shower it off, or you can't sit on furniture. If you need to go out for 10 minutes or less, you're covered in bites instantly. I have scars all over from scratching in my sleep.

I don't know what I'm going to do next year, I don't want to spray, I've never done that before. I'm hoping the water table goes down. I've never seen it as bad as it was last year. In town it was OK, but the rural areas, the air was literally thick with them. We also had less frogs than I've ever seen. If I could breed, or even buy frogs, dragonflies and bats, I would be quite happy.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

So how exactly does this work?

The technology comes from Oxitec, a spin-out company from Oxford University, which inserts a “dominant lethal gene” into insects. This enables males to produce viable sperm and fertilise females, but the resulting larvae always die before hatching. The idea is to release vast numbers of sterile male insects – at least 10 times more than the wild population. They swamp the native males and mate with all available females, which fail to produce viable offspring.

www.ft.com...
Also what about when the female mosquito mates with the male mosquito and then the female mosquito pricks you?
Where else will this be introduced?
Well they are hoping in Malaysia and

Authorities in Florida, Brazil and Panama are also considering using the method, according to Oxitec

www.earthweek.com...
Where does this money come from?

program, funded by a $19.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Or, when the bugs are eaten by birds or fish, the gene enters the DNA, and modifies the bird or fish. They in turn become sterile. Man eventually eats one of these genetically modified birds or fish, in turn, making them sterile as well.
We all know that the thief Gates wants to depopulate the earth, so I'm not surprised that he is involved with this end game plot.

edit on 2-12-2010 by Violater1 because: (no reason given)

Originally posted by endtimer
reply to post by ModernAcademia

 

Your title says "secretly" released. I thought it was supposed to
be a secret. How was it secretly done? You somehow know about
this, so why do you say secretly? Just curious.....

I think they mean the location and the time the mosquitoes where released was kept secret to avoid a angry (fly swating holding) crowd!

Nature is a well tuned machine that has evolved over eons. Do you really think that all the exists has NO PURPOSE? Do you really think that mosquitoes are just pests? Everything is connected via a food chain. As others have mentioned, what happens when this link is pulled out? Increase in another species that upsets the eco? Perhaps the collapse of an entire system from the collapse of the mosquitoe population? These people are playing genetic jenga and no one knows where this is headed...

Actually this really was not much of a secret.

As much as people love to hate him.... Alex Jones had a CEO from this company on his show yesterday discussing the mosquitoes, why they were being released, how they were made, what purpose it serves, etc etc etc.

For anyone interested, you might want to check it out.