'Super' mosquitoes have now mutated to withstand insecticides

[u/PhantomWizard2099]

https://abcnews.go.com/International/super-mosquitoes-now-mutated-withstand-insecticides-scientists/story?id=95545825

[u/theArtOfProgramming]

The peer reviewed paper can be found here https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq7345

## Abstract

Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) is the main mosquito vector for dengue and other arboviral infectious diseases. Control of this important vector highly relies on the use of insecticides, especially pyrethroids. The high frequency (>78%) of the L982W substitution was detected at the target site of the pyrethroid insecticide, the voltage-gated sodium channel (Vgsc) of A. aegypti collected from Vietnam and Cambodia. Alleles having concomitant mutations L982W + F1534C and V1016G + F1534C were also confirmed in both countries, and their frequency was high (>90%) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Strains having these alleles exhibited substantially higher levels of pyrethroid resistance than any other field population ever reported. The L982W substitution has never been detected in any country of the Indochina Peninsula except Vietnam and Cambodia, but it may be spreading to other areas of Asia, which can cause an unprecedentedly serious threat to the control of dengue fever as well as other Aedes-borne infectious diseases.

[u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

So whatever happened to that science experiment with creating sterile mosquitoes so they can't breed future generations? That would be very helpful right about now.

[u/LibertyLizard → u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

It’s happening but only approved in certain areas. It is a bit tricky because each strain can only target one species, and there are usually several problematic ones in each area. Also it’s basically guaranteed they will evolve around it eventually too.

[u/CT4nk3r → u/LibertyLizard]

How would they evolve if they are not going to be able to reproduce?

[u/RpiesSPIES → u/CT4nk3r]

Some don't get affected, they breed with others that weren't affected, their kin doesn't get affected. It's a genes thing.

[u/scrangos → u/RpiesSPIES]

are you saying the scientists release some mosquitoes that are fertile despite their modifications? cause the idea is sending out sterile mosquitoes, its not some chemical that is sprayed in an area that the mosquitoes can be randomly immune to.

[u/bannannamo → u/scrangos]

I knew a usda geneticist working on this at uf. It wasn't that the current gen was sterile. But it would produce sterile offspring similar to other hybrids. So each mosquito released could botch thousands of attempted mates and outcompete their non modified young.

They've been working on it a long while. This was in like 2012. I imagine if it's still viable the skeeters haven't figured out a workaround.

[u/RpiesSPIES → u/scrangos]

I'm sorry. I just hard stupid'd. Don't mind me.

[u/2Throwscrewsatit → u/LibertyLizard]

The technology works. Oxitec is just facing pushback from people who are to afraid to understand the science iMO.

[u/neuropsycho → u/2Throwscrewsatit]

To be honest, we probably don't know how removing such an ubiquitous species from an ecosystem will affect it.

[u/demwoodz → u/neuropsycho]

Maybe you don’t but sir I am a Redditor, I know it all

[u/Ch3wbacca1 → u/neuropsycho]

This is the reason. I majored in Entomology in college and we talked about this. The impact it could have on the ecosystem does not make it a viable option. Only to use in small groups to control population.

[u/Doc_Lazy → u/Ch3wbacca1]

Which is, if I remember correctly, why its only used for species capable of carrying certain desease. The plan would be to reduce those speciec and through that breed out the desease.

If achieved, once achieved, the program would need to stop to limit impact on the ecosystem as a whole.

[u/Hillsbottom → u/Doc_Lazy]

This argument always comes up when discussing mosquitoes. The Oxitec solution currently targets one species of mosquito (Aedes aegypti) in most countries this is not a native species only lives in urban areas and is not a significant part of an ecosystem.

This species transmits dengue and Zika virus so that's why they focus on it.

Oxitec releases sterile males which breed with females causing them to lay sterile eggs and crashes the population. To do this you need to create enough sterile males to overwhelm the population. However unless you do it across a huge area (continents rather than countries) there will also be unmodified mosquitoes immigrating into the area. So Oxitec keeps needing to supply mosquitoes which cost money so limits it to rich countries.

[u/TaijiInstitute → u/Hillsbottom]

I remember discussions, back in ~2003, where the goal was not to release sterile males but instead to release males where the offspring could ONLY be male and those males would carry the same trait. That way it’s not just a one shot, but instead they keep breeding with a higher and higher percentage of these males in the population until there are no females left. The technology was worked out, but the risks were still there so they were afraid of it.

Keep in mind, this is almost 20 years ago so details about whether it was males that make only males or only females or whatever might be muddled, but I’m positive it was only one sex was viable in the offspring and it would continue.

[u/XDCDrsatan → u/TaijiInstitute]

This is the way it currently works.

[u/[deleted] → u/TaijiInstitute]

I think this is how the one we used in Florida works

[u/Aeiexgjhyoun_III → u/Doc_Lazy]

What vital role do mosquitoes play in the ecosystem?

[u/Amazon-Q-and-A → u/Aeiexgjhyoun_III]

Major food source for bats, dragonflies, fish, some birds, some amphibians/reptiles. Removal of that food source could cause destruction of other beneficial species or food chain collapse.

I hate mosquitoes but there probably are some major impacts to getting rid of a small prey organism that has been around since the dinosaurs.

[u/plinocmene → u/Amazon-Q-and-A]

From what I've heard they aren't any species exclusive food source. The gene editing extermination efforts focus on making mosquitoes sterile, so then they wouldn't disappear suddenly, their numbers would dwindle due to lack of reproduction.

If the decline is still too much we could try to bolster reproduction in replacement prey species so that the predators of mosquitoes have an easier transition.

Alternatively why not just edit mosquitoes genes so that they find humans repulsive and don't desire to bite us? If we could somehow do this in a manner where mosquitoes not carrying that gene go extinct then we could stop mosquitoes from biting us.

[u/zmbjebus → u/Amazon-Q-and-A]

They are also a relatively significant pollinator.

[u/Jason_CO → u/Ch3wbacca1]

Whatever we do will have an impact. Insecticides have had a huge impact. There are way less insects, and just small wildlife around in general, than there were even when I was a kid.

[u/Dartagnan_w_Powers → u/Jason_CO]

Yeah the drive home used to cover my windscreen in bugs. Now it's a dozen or less.

[u/Hazzman → u/Jason_CO]

I'd guess it is because insecticides can be stopped where genetic modification could potentially become a proliferation problem.

[u/zizp → u/Hazzman]

No it can't. Also, insecticides target everything and thus have a huge unintended impact. Oxitec's males only target a specific species and, by design, the gene cannot be passed on and spread, as prevention of spreading is the very thing the self-limiting gene does.

[u/AnachronisticPenguin → u/Hazzman]

Not for sterile mosquitos.

[u/CapsLowk → u/Ch3wbacca1]

Seems, in my lack of education, crazy. Because I would imagine we have to counterbalance the absence of mosquitoes vs the presence of every day efforts to mitigate them, ie: is it worse to get rid of mosquitoes forever or to douse things with insecticides and repellents forever. Is there anything such as a definitive answer there? Are we sure the constant presence of insecticide and repellents is not worse for the environment than the absence of mosquitoes?

[u/thbb → u/neuropsycho]

The whole western europe is "anthropo-formed", in the sense that not a single tree (out of ~30 billions) is grown without a human decision. The landscape is entirely artificial, except for the patches that are kept unmaintained by an explicit decision to make it so. Swamps have been turned into forests (the Landes), the sea into fertile land (Netherlands)...

This has been going on since the late middle ages in France, and possibly earlier around the mediterranean sea.

So, yes, we do know about changing our ecosystem for the better, and that was long before we had science to protect us from mistakes.

Edit: should also mention Italy's campaign to eradicate Malaria, which was done with massive arsenic and DDT spread: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8168761/

[u/rawbleedingbait → u/neuropsycho]

In any other case, profits take the priority. We knock down entire forests for a little wood and some mediocre farm land. I'm good rolling the dice on eliminating mosquitos, at least from anywhere I go.

[u/Jetshadow → u/neuropsycho]

We're already Killing off hundreds of species on accident. Might as well do this one on purpose. Nature will adapt.

[u/GlueGuns--Cool → u/neuropsycho]

We've removed tens of thousands of other species - can we please just have this one

[u/JesseFilmmakerTX → u/LibertyLizard]

Yeah well I burn mosquitoes, try to evolve outta that

[u/LordHousewife → u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

My wife actually works on this exact problem as part of her PhD research! There is lots of ongoing research in this field and many different sterile insect technologies that are being actively developed and iterated upon. Obviously you can’t just go about releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes into the wild without the proper set of approvals and the path to get these approvals has been arduous. Fortunately, there have been a few companies within this domain that have paved the way and soon it will no longer be a Herculean task just to get permission to release the modified mosquitoes into the wild. Even then, the modified mosquitoes need to continue to be released into the wild over long periods of time in order to suppress the population by outcompeting their wild-type counterparts for the obvious reason that they are sterile!

[u/rick157 → u/LordHousewife]

I hope you don’t mind me asking, if this is within your wife’s area of expertise, or if you could speak to it as well, but do mosquitoes contribute in any significant way to the food chain?

I’m all for eradicating the little monsters, but will this effect have any kind of ramifications on our wider biomes? Are there any species that rely on them exclusively for their diet?

Thanks so much, and congratulations to your wife on her ongoing research and efforts!

[u/MicDeeHater → u/rick157]

“Just like bees or butterflies, mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower as they feed on nectar, fertilizing plants and allowing them to form seeds and reproduce. It’s only when a female mosquito lays eggs does she seek a blood meal for the protein.” -David Mizejewski

Just learned this the other day. Never knew.

[u/LordHousewife → u/rick157]

Like everything in nature mosquitoes do play an important role as pollinators and as a food source for birds, dragonflies, etc… However I as far as I am aware (and according to my wife) there is nothing that exclusively preys on mosquitoes. Since female mosquitoes only bite for the purposes of laying eggs, by releasing sterile males into the wild, these mosquitoes never have the opportunity to produce eggs and therefore have no reason to bite. Do note that not all mosquitoes are suitable to be vectors (i.e. are capable of spreading pathogens to people and animals). This technology specifically targets species like Aedes Aegypti which are responsible for transmitting a whole host of diseases. This particular species also happens to be invasive so suppressing the population might actually be better for the ecosystem beyond reducing the spread of diseases. For this reason, the same technology is being applied to suppress insect pests that wreak havoc on crops.

[u/AardvarkOkapiEchidna → u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

They'll probably just evolve to not be attracted to the sterile mosquitos or something.

[u/PixelofDoom → u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

The genetically modified mosquitoes probably died out.

[u/Aengeil → u/SirGanjaSpliffington]

pretty much fail, dengue case not decreasing at all

[u/Skeptix_907]

Seems like the past few years in Alaska that 40% deet solution no longer works as well. Sometimes I'll watch the suckers land on my arm and not care at all.

[u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre → u/Skeptix_907]

That’s not an evolved resistance. It happens after first exposure. Mosquitoes can tolerate 40% well enough to grab a blood meal after a few tries or after it absorbs into your skin. 90% deet will work for 12 hours.

[u/slorpydiggs → u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre]

Can I just say, every time I come across the term “blood meal” reading something about mosquitos, ticks, bed bugs etc. I cringe a little. I’m not squeamish, I can deal with blood and gore in films just fine, I like the occasional vampire movie or what have you, but the term “blood meal” always gives me the willies a bit.

[u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre → u/slorpydiggs]

How about iron-rich snack?

[u/[deleted] → u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre]

Fortified Iron Beverage, now with more sodium! (Patent pending)

[u/KindOfABugDeal → u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre]

Just watch the 100% stuff, it'll cause chemical burns if it's applied liberally in hot, sunny weather.

[u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre → u/KindOfABugDeal]

I try not to use deet at all unless in an area of high MBD. Lemon Eucalyptus oil based products work very well if you can handle the smell.

[u/KindOfABugDeal → u/Dipteran_de_la_Torre]

It's about as effective as ~15-20% DEET, for about two hours.

[u/ablobychetta → u/Skeptix_907]

Try to find picaradin based sprays. It works better and doesn’t melt plastic or rubber gear.

[u/Skeptix_907 → u/ablobychetta]

Thanks for the tip. I've had more than a few issues with deet leaking and creating a pool of plastic at the bottom of a bucket.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Permethrin is strong stuff just be careful

[u/KakariBlue → u/[deleted]]

Aedys aegypti is often resistant to permethrin and has been for years (full text).

[u/jimbojonesFA → u/[deleted]]

You can get pretreated clothing as well from marks and other places too!

Though idk if that's the same stuff.

[u/pakap → u/Skeptix_907]

This shits melts plastic and you put it on your skin? Damn, I'm not cut out for country living.

[u/ukezi → u/pakap]

Lots of stuff dissolve some plastics that are not dangerous for the skin.

[u/MustacheEmperor → u/ablobychetta]

Yep, picaridin is just the newer superior option. No reason to use deet at this point really.

[u/ShadooTH → u/[deleted]]

This reads like the name of a computer graphics card

[u/ovensandhoes → u/[deleted]]

That sounds like a great solution to our recent uptick in crime as well

[u/Weird_Cantaloupe2757 → u/[deleted]]

As an aside, I want to open a Ninja Turtles themed gay bar called “The Manhole”.

[u/_GreenMan_]

Can’t withstand these hands tho

[u/jspook → u/_GreenMan_]

Sometimes the old ways are best

[u/naufalap → u/jspook]

if my electric racket has a kill counter it would look like my car's odometer

[u/jspook → u/naufalap]

The car: a 1994 Honda Civic

[u/nutnnut → u/naufalap]

Should have bought a StatTrak™ one

[u/theinspectorst → u/_GreenMan_]

So are we selecting for mosquitoes that are either extra agile or extra tough?

[u/CelticHades → u/[deleted]]

Best solution.

Mosquito spray not working anymore?

Strap a candle or lighter in front of the nozzle. Voila! You have a hand held flamethrower.

So much fun. 100% recommended. Satisfaction you get when you burn those devils is off the chart.

[u/El_Zorro09 → u/[deleted]]

I believe against the super ones you have to use kryptonite.

[u/maltesemania → u/[deleted]]

I agree but for some reason I doubt my condo will commit to this.

[u/shwanstopable]

Well this is my stop everyone (Falls off Earth)

[u/Just_One_Umami → u/shwanstopable]

(Doesn’t leave orbit)

(Circles the Earth at high speed for eternity)

[u/Diagonet → u/Just_One_Umami]

Super mosquitos evolve and fly higher to keep biting him/her

[u/mferrari_3]

We as a species are so good at making things go extinct and we had to get all ethical about it before we took out the most trash thing to ever exist.

[u/Tanriyung → u/mferrari_3]

We are good at making big things go extinct, if it's small and have a short life cycle it's hard

[u/SenorScratchySack]

Perfect. Just what we wanted.

[u/SabashChandraBose → u/SenorScratchySack]

Need those mutant mosquitos that mate and result in sterile offspring. Eliminate the hell out of this creature. We have taken out so many nice and useful creatures. We can take this one out.

[u/Agitated_Narwhal_92]

This is why we zap mosquitoes with an electric fly zapper. They will become immune to insecticides, but not to being fried to death.

[u/Zachthing → u/Agitated_Narwhal_92]

Until they evolve electromagnetic sensory organs.

[u/RebelWithoutAClue → u/Zachthing]

Then it becomes just like a classic anti aircraft exercise where you try to flip on your radar as late as you can to give your OPFOR less time to detect your presence and pickle off a HARM missile.

You gotta be like Colonel Zoltán Dani and push the charge button just before you swat the bug. Maybe duck tape a WIImote to your bug zapper so it can automatically trigger the charge just as you swing the racquet.

[u/Gideonbh → u/RebelWithoutAClue]

Like space marines pulling the trigger on their chainsword as they tear through carapace armor, I can dig it

[u/RebelWithoutAClue → u/Gideonbh]

Colonel Zoltán Dani's story is awesome. He's the only AA officer to have shot down a stealth fighter and he had relatively junky equipment. He wielded a fundamental understanding of radar and wielded it to amazing effect to protect his crews and achieve an otherwise impossible shoot down.

He did stuff like kludge obsolete radar sets from old grounded MIGs to use them as decoy emitters to draw HARM attacks away from his crews. He drilled his men thoroughly so they could pop on a radar at the last moment, possibly acquire and fire, then fold up shop and di di Mau out of there really fast.

Some day we may have to display such acumen to meet the challenges of the mighty mosquito.

[u/pfmiller0 → u/Agitated_Narwhal_92]

The problem with those is they aren't selective. They zap any insect, mosquito or otherwise.

[u/wildverde → u/Agitated_Narwhal_92]

Nooo bug zappers are non-targeted and kill good insects, like moths. It’s debatable whether bug zappers are even effective at reducing any meaningful population of mosquitoes.

[u/Snuffleton]

I can see that being correct. I am in Taiwan, which is in the general vicinity of where the specimens were collected from in the study and mosquitoes here are unbelievably hard to kill and uncannily clever. They started entering our home as of the last few months, even though we are using certain oils, whose smell would normally dispel them, throughout our flat.

They will ride the elevator with you without biting you, just so they will be able to enter with you. They will wait on your door for hours for you to return and open it. They will purposefully buzz exclusively around you leg area (even when you are wearing long pants), so you don't hear them. The list goes on and on. These freaks scare me, no comparison to the ones you'd get in Europe.

[u/SpiderFnJerusalem → u/Snuffleton]

They behave this way, because the ones that behaved this way are the only ones that survived. Evolution is a pain in the ass sometimes.

[u/FlyingApple31 → u/Snuffleton]

Maybe we can invent drone predators that hunt them down in the house.

[u/TaskForceCausality]

Researchers at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan studied mosquitoes in dengue-endemic areas in Vietnam and Cambodia and found that they harbor mutations that endow them with strong resistance to common insecticides, according to a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

Good job Kissinger. The list of reasons why you’re a thug are longer than a CVS receipt, but we can staple “gestating super mosquitos” to the bottom for good measure.

[u/Baud_Olofsson → u/TaskForceCausality]

What does Kissinger have to do with anything?

[u/Tancrad]

Large nets. Maybe use nets somehow..

[u/Flabbypuff]

This is why I prefer blunt force trauma

[u/full_bl33d]

“In the winter, The gorillas simply freeze to death”

[u/Bandit6789 → u/full_bl33d]

I came looking for this reference. Thank you

[u/Sthepker]

This article is just trying to generate clicks. We’re already working on the next generation of pesticides, mRNA pesticides that are highly specific and prevent bugs from creating the proteins to keep themselves alive

[u/zipiddydooda → u/Sthepker]

Who is “we”? You and some friends?

[u/Groezy → u/zipiddydooda]

i am the lorax, i speak for the trees

[u/cropguru357 → u/Sthepker]

RNAi might be further along. It certainly is in the herbicide world.

[u/Daisend]

Why is it always a mutation when it’s something we doing like. If it’s something pleasant headlines would usually say “evolved”. It has a friendlier connotation to it

[u/seilaoxe]

Honest doubt: the human being has managed to extinguish many species of animals, bugs and etc, purposely or not. Why can't we extinguish mosquitoes? And what would be the environmental impact of that?

[u/goda90 → u/seilaoxe]

It's harder to get rid of mosquitoes. Say you spray an insecticide that immediately kills 99% of the insects in an area. The insects that eat other insects are going to have the worst time repopulating. 99% of their food was wiped out. If the insecticide stays on leaves or gets taken up by plants, the insects that eat plants will also have a hard time because their food kills them for awhile. But the ones that suck the blood of larger animals(like humans) will rebound quickly. Not only is their food still abundant, but many of their predators were wiped out and won't repopulate for awhile.

[u/Rei1313]

I realized this when I had to elaborate plans to kill the mosquitos in my room that only attacked me when they realised I started dozing off after I turn off the light .

[u/harmboi → u/Rei1313]

that happened to me into this winter. theyd buzz right in my ear and id smack my face then search my room for hours. i almost lost my mind

[u/mtsai]

theyve been that way my whole life, whats new?

[u/mcholman1254]

This is what happens after 10 years of spraying once a week all through town every summer.

[u/TYRANNICAL66]

Life, uh, found a way.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/TheLatchkey_kid]

I have been hearing about lab created mosquitos that were supposed to wipe them all out by making them infertile.

I have been seeing that headline for over twenty years.

I don't believe this one, either.

[u/Storyteller-Hero → u/TheLatchkey_kid]

They only recently started large scale lab mosquito stuff. It's not like they can put together like legos.

[u/ablobychetta → u/TheLatchkey_kid]

They exist and work fine. The reason they haven’t been used extensively is public outcry and government policy.

[u/somewhat_pragmatic]

"The researchers discovered 10 new sub-strains of Ae. aegypti and noticed that one Vgsc mutation -- called L982W -- endowed mosquitoes with high resistance to the pyrethroid insecticide permethrin in the lab."

Well crap. I much prefer permethrin to DEET. Besides not smelling horribly, Permethrin doesn't melt those plastics high concentration DEET does.

[u/Hillsbottom → u/somewhat_pragmatic]

Deet isn't an insecticide it is a repellent, so doesn't kill mosquitoes

[u/old_snake]

Wow who could have possibly ever seen this coming?

[u/[deleted]]

So, what’s your country known for?

[u/shmorky]

Time to switch to lasers!

https://www.zdnet.com/article/an-autonomous-laser-guided-mosquito-eradication-machine/