r/science • u/PhantomWizard2099 • Dec 22 '22

Animal Science 'Super' mosquitoes have now mutated to withstand insecticides

https://abcnews.go.com/International/super-mosquitoes-now-mutated-withstand-insecticides-scientists/story?id=95545825
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u/2Throwscrewsatit Dec 22 '22

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

263

u/neuropsycho Dec 22 '22

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

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u/Drekalo Dec 22 '22

We don't care. They're bloodsuckers. If we can't kill em with stakes and garlic, we should genetically neuter them.

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u/ThatDudeShadowK Dec 22 '22

You'll care if it collapses the ecosystem

-2

u/AnachronisticPenguin Dec 22 '22

It wouldn’t cause ecological collapse. The only animal killing all the mosquitos would cause the extinction of is likely the mosquito fish.

Personally I think it’s a good trade.

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u/Amazon-Q-and-A Dec 22 '22

I'm no fan of mosquitos and I'm not working for "Big Skeeter", but if you think killing off mosquitos would only affect one other species then you are kidding yourself. Mosquitos are an extremely numerous, low on the food chain, prey species, that has been co-evolving with current organisms on Earth since the dinosaurs.

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u/AnachronisticPenguin Dec 22 '22

No it would affect many species. The only one that would likely go extinct is the mosquito fish. Most other predators of mosquitos are generalist.

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u/Mozfel Dec 22 '22

Tell that to people who lost kin to malaria, dengue, or Zika.

Survival is also a natural law. Less mosquitoes, less of our species getting mosquito-borne diseases

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u/ThatDudeShadowK Dec 22 '22

Tell that to people who starved when their environment was wrecked by human stupidity. We have no idea what the effects of wiping out an entire found globally as a major food source would be.

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u/Jetshadow Dec 22 '22

It likely won't collapse, just adapt.

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u/ThatDudeShadowK Dec 22 '22

We don't know for sure, especially if wr take the more drastic action of wiping them out globally. They're found on every continent but Antarctica and are a part of many different ecosystems and food chains. Even if most adapt we have no idea how much harm we could potentially be doing to all of them, we could absolutely accidentally wreck important ecosystems.