Posted on 09/15/2019 10:10:42 AM PDT by rktman
Mosquitoes are more than just a pest – they can be downright dangerous carriers of disease. One of the most innovative ideas to control populations of the bugs has been to release genetically modified male mosquitoes that produce unviable offspring. But unfortunately a test of this in Brazil appears to have failed, with genes from the mutant mosquitoes now mixing with the native population.
The idea sounded solid. Male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were genetically engineered to have a dominant lethal gene. When they mated with wild female mozzies, this gene would drastically cut down the number of offspring they produced, and the few that were born should be too weak to survive long.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
One of the most innovative ideas to control populations of the bug ... is to build windmills which kill their predators (bats) in uncounted (literally) numbers. More bugs, please!
Thnx to Warren “Bat Man” Buffett!
I thought this was going to be an article about the Volt...or the Vega.
I avoid GMOs in food.. It’s all junk. You really don’t want to mess with Mother Nature.
It always looks good on paper. Letting it loose in the wild is a whole 'nother story.
As long as there are too many people living too close together, there will be plagues. Get used to it.
DDT, works wherever it is tried.
“But unfortunately a test of this in Brazil appears to have failed, with genes from the mutant mosquitoes now mixing with the native population.”
Another successful government failure.
Or just bring back DDT
Did anyone else think of this scene from the original The Inlaws where
Peter Falk’s character describes children being carried off by giant bugs?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yqKadJiNZ4s
And they want to make genetically modified pigs and people. What could go wrong?
Someone once thought we could use nukes to excavate to civilian construction projects too.
One of the funniest scenes of one of the funniest movies ever.
Back when humor was funny.
Worse still, the genetic experiment may have had the opposite effect and made mosquitoes even more resilient. The bugs in the area are now made up of three strains mixed together: the original Brazilian locals, plus strains from Cuba and Mexico – the two strains crossed to make the GM insects. This wider gene pool could make the mozzies more robust as a whole.
...
So the increase in strength, if there is any, has nothing to do with the genetic modification.
Let’s see how many people read the article.
Some years they dumped a bunch of triploid Grass Carp in some of the Texas lakes to control some invasive Hydrila that had choked the lakes.
They assured everyone they were sterile and would clean things up and die off.
Except for the ones that successfully bred and ate everything in the lake until it looked like a dirty swimming pool....
I worked with a guy that we should figure out a way to give skeeters...aids! What a dumb @$$.
I wonder if this is the group that gave us killer bees.
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