Half of all humans that have ever existed died from mosquito born illnesses.
Should we deploy the technology to eradicate them once and for all?
Link: https://washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/06/03/mosquito-extinction-gene-editing-malaria/
Replies to: Half of all humans that have ever existed died from mosquito born illnesses.
Aedes Agytpi is an invasive species
Eradicating it in the west will have no impact. And elsewhere the other, less harmful mosquitos will take its place.
This is a no-brainer. If half of humanity had been killed by alligators, they would have been eradicated centuries ago.
No.Mosquitos are a massive part of the food chain for many species as well as population control for
other species.
The Law of Unintended Consequences would be heavily in play for any move against such a broad reaching species.
Yes. That mosquito was imported from the Old World.
Nature would happily adjust to its absence.
Kill them all.
I gather “population control” is how you justify the thousands of dead children from cutting USAID.
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I was thinking rodents, etc. Can't separate politics from anything, can you? TDS......
Stop hiding among the innocent with your graft - Shameful.
What could possibly go wrong?
Chris favored this. I can't recall if he was for dispensing DDT again to do it, or what exact potion.
The reason we don't have Malaria and Yellow Fever here is DDT.
One interesting piece of history is that certain areas of Africa were targeted for slaves due to immunity to Malaria because it existed across the southern US.
DDT has negative consequences, one major one was in decimating raptor populations. But was it worth it is an open question in my mind. Saved probably 500M people.
Dr Craig (my professor) from ND did the greatest work in this field -defined life cycle of Aedes
aegypti mosquito and exploited that knowledge to save the lives of millions in Africa. One of the reasons that you only see the Anopheles mosquito being a vector is because of his work on the more prevalent carrier Aedes at the time.
One of the greatest decorated science professors at ND ever, and ND's first ever member of the ultra prestigious National Academy of Sciences. ALL WITH NO INSECTICIDES which was important to him.
Re your mention of malaria resistance.....
Malaria is felt to have selected for people with the Sickle Cell Anemia Trait (carriers of one gene). Because of the hyperactive immune response to filter out misshapen blood cells, those with SS Trait actually present a hostile environment for plasmodium parasite.
Unfortunately, when people are homozygous for the SS gene - they have the Sickle cell Disease with all of it's attendant problems and shortened life span.
I didn't know about their choosing slaves based on this resistance, but it tracks.
Link: https://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/how-sickle-cell-protects-against-malaria-a-sticky-connection
Here is an ND Mag article on Dr Craig
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Link: https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/his-passion-was-contagious/
And a NYT obituary article (to give you an idea of his impact as an entomologist)
So we only have to eradicate a few species of mosquito, I say do it.
And kill all the God damned ticks while we're at it!
Interesting stuff on sickle cell and your beloved professor. Thanks for sharing.
No kidding. Reminds me of the Star Trek: The Mark of Gideon episode.
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