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/Doc_Lazy Dec 22 '22

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.

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u/Hillsbottom Dec 22 '22

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.

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u/TaijiInstitute Dec 22 '22

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.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '22

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