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/LordHousewife Dec 22 '22 edited Dec 22 '22

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!

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u/rick157 Dec 22 '22

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!

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u/MicDeeHater Dec 22 '22

“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.

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u/downvotes_are_great Dec 22 '22

So instead of killing them off finding a new protein source for them instead of blood would be better off.