Considering all the damage we do to eco systems and how little concern many governments have for the environment how come we are so concerned about potential consequences of fighting mosquitoes with genetically modified bacteria and similiar strategies?
Only a few species are dangerous to humans and none of them are keystone species in their ecosystems so why not just erradicate them?
In: Biology
Back in the day I had a natural science teacher (nicknamed “knott”, which means “midge” in Swedish) who used to be an entomologist and expert advisor to WHO on how to eradicate *Simulium damnosum*, a species of black fly (ie, a type midge) that’s the primary vector for spreading river blindness (a horrible parasitic disease).
If you felt like distracting him from a natural science class all you had to do was mention his work for WHO. He was a very intelligent and knowledgeable man, possibly one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met, and *very very very* bitter about his work for WHO.
WHO have tried to eradicate *simulium damnosum* since the 1960s, and the only way to do it permanently would be to rebuild every river and stream in Africa so that on the entire continent there isn’t a single waterway or irrigation channel flowing at the speeds that this particular species of blackfly needs to lay its eggs. Everything else has been tried, everything from massive chembombing campaigns to bio warfare to…everything (usually with massive collateral damage to other wildlife). And every step of the way they had to fight corruption and the fact that it just wasn’t widespread knowledge how to make sure that you didn’t build a new breeding ground for that blackfly whenever there was a new irrigation project etc.
It’s 2024, over 60 years later and Knott has been dead for almost two decades now. *Simulium damnosum* is still around and river blindness is still a huge problem.
The tl;dr version: People have tried. It’s not easy to do because mosquitos and midges are adapted to insane predator pressure and almost nothing works. without causing a wasteland (and sometimes not even that works).
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