Eradicating Mosquitos

kylith

I was watching Dara O'Briain's Science Club the other night and they were talking about efforts to eradicate malarial mosquitoes in various parts of the world, primarily by using genetically modified males to mate with wild females, the offspring being programmed to die before adulthood. This had led to an 85% drop in numbers in some areas. It got me thinking: obviously malaria is Bad, but are we really justified in attempting to wipe out an entire species of insect to try to eradicate it? What happens to the creatures that eat mosquitoes and their larvae when the mosquitoes take such a hit in numbers? Obviously most insectivores would eat more than one species of insect, but surely the loss of 85% of one prey item would have some kind of impact on predator numbers? Is this kind of research even necessary? I've heard of malaria vaccines in the works, and also a patch to effectively make humans invisible to mozzies.

What do ye think of this?

fryup

tampering with nature usually ends in tears

a sub-species will probably develop from it that will be a bigger nuisance

robp

kylith wrote: »

I was watching Dara O'Briain's Science Club the other night and they were talking about efforts to eradicate malarial mosquitoes in various parts of the world, primarily by using genetically modified males to mate with wild females, the offspring being programmed to die before adulthood. This had led to an 85% drop in numbers in some areas. It got me thinking: obviously malaria is Bad, but are we really justified in attempting to wipe out an entire species of insect to try to eradicate it? What happens to the creatures that eat mosquitoes and their larvae when the mosquitoes take such a hit in numbers? Obviously most insectivores would eat more than one species of insect, but surely the loss of 85% of one prey item would have some kind of impact on predator numbers? Is this kind of research even necessary? I've heard of malaria vaccines in the works, and also a patch to effectively make humans invisible to mozzies.

What do ye think of this?

It is maybe suitable in certain isolated places where mosquito are not native like Hawaii but elsewhere I think it is problematic. From an ethical point of view only sub-Saharan Africa is where main the focus should be eradicating them. Even if you do eradicate that huge ecological niche is going to be filled up sooner or later.

CJhaughey

Its pretty easy to say that Mosquitos serve an important ecological niche, If you live in a City on an Island that doesn't have Malaria and is rich enough to be able to treat it if you do happen to get it.

However for many people in developing nations and especially in Africa patches however cheap aren't affordable.
Vaccines will never be able to be universally given to all who need them.

If you were living in Africa and your family had died from Malaria I'm pretty sure the last thing you would be concerned about is keeping mosquitos from being wiped out around your area.

Birdnuts

It should also be remembered that only a handfull of species are harmfull to humans. The hundreds of other species are an important part of the food chain - especcially in aquatic habitats.

endacl

fryup wrote: »

tampering with nature usually ends in tears

I can verify this. I tampered with an onion earlier today.



On a serious note, the mass spraying of DDT in the 60's and 70's did little in the long term to keep mozzie numbers down worldwide. They're just too tenacious as a species. I don't see what difference a genetically introduced sterility would have. It only takes a tiny proportion of a population to breed successfully, and off we go again.

kylith

CJhaughey wrote: »

Its pretty easy to say that Mosquitos serve an important ecological niche, If you live in a City on an Island that doesn't have Malaria and is rich enough to be able to treat it if you do happen to get it.

However for many people in developing nations and especially in Africa patches however cheap aren't affordable.
Vaccines will never be able to be universally given to all who need them.

If you were living in Africa and your family had died from Malaria I'm pretty sure the last thing you would be concerned about is keeping mosquitos from being wiped out around your area.

I'm aware of all that, this topic, along with GM foods, drive me to a state of cerebral paralysis because I can see every side of the argument.

I'm sure grain farmers in the US felt more or less the same about passenger pigeons eating crops as people in malarial countries feel about mosquitoes; that if one has to die so the other can live so be it. It doesn't make the fact that a species which had taken millions of years to evolve was wiped out any less sad.

robp

CJhaughey wrote: »

Its pretty easy to say that Mosquitos serve an important ecological niche, If you live in a City on an Island that doesn't have Malaria and is rich enough to be able to treat it if you do happen to get it.

However for many people in developing nations and especially in Africa patches however cheap aren't affordable.
Vaccines will never be able to be universally given to all who need them.

If you were living in Africa and your family had died from Malaria I'm pretty sure the last thing you would be concerned about is keeping mosquitos from being wiped out around your area.

When I wrote that they fill an important ecological nice I was stressing that eradicating them is futile as something else would return to fill the niche in the long term.

Bed nets are super cheap and extremely effective. We are now at a stage where HIV anti-retro virals are in use across Africa. As we have achieved this surely we could adequately distribute vaccines once they are developed and mass produced (leaving aside warzones).

Desmo

CJhaughey wrote: »

Vaccines will never be able to be universally given to all who need them.

Vaccines are extremely cheap to administer as they only have to be given once (usually). They were used to successfully eradicate smallpox worldwide, for example. Polio was eliminated completely in developed countries in the 50s-60s and is almost eliminated worldwide. It is expected to be wiped out soon. It needs backing by e.g. UNICEF and then it can be done.