Researchers unleash genophage on...mosquitoes

[NLS]

So uh what happens en the sterile ones die, population grows again ?

You've got a point, since they wouldn't have any sterile offspring (well duh, they're sterile, no offspring for them): How would this spread?

 

[Neverhoodian]

I don't mind this at all, provided that it doesn't reduce their numbers to the point that it greatly disrupts the ecosystem. Male mosquitoes aren't blood drinkers and help pollinate certain plants, and many animals rely on them as a food source.

If it works they should focus their attention on the Argentine ant next. If there was ever a species that needed culling, it's those fuckers.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-we-should-be-way-more-scared-ants/

 

[Skratt]

Seriously, stop fucking with nature already. We'll probably create a mosquito that lives 1/10th of the lifespan but creates 10 times the volume of mosquitoes to compensate. Won't that be fun?

Just try to understand how dangerous malaria is in Africa. If they managed to take away 80% of mosquitos AND avoid serious consequences, hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa would be saved per year. We fucked with food to get us past the 3-billion capacity traditional methods netted us, so fucking with nature is not inherently bad, just has risks and consequences that have to be carefully considered.

Yeah, but genetically homogeneous crops may also be to blame for untold allergies and other maladies. Perhaps we should not have gone past the 3-billion capacity mark. If you can't do something safely, don't do it at all. Not to mention, once we pass a certain point, the planet can no longer sustain us, so by passing they 3 billion mark, we might have well killed us all. But what do we care, we'll be dead when those problems surface.

 

[Heartcafe]

I wonder what species were gonna get to severely cripple next? Please oh please be spiders.

Spiders eat bugs and insects (including mosquitoes.) I say we keep them, but just make sure they don't come into the house XD

 

[Syntax Man]

I am 100% in agreement with eradicating the species all together, fortunately, for us, unfortunately environmentalists, everything that subsists on mosquitoes, from small birds to dragonflies, have other dietary options, and the removal of a disease spreading, human biting, maddening itch creating, bloodsucking, parasite, like the mosquito would be a net benefit.

 

[Guitar Gamer]

Well if the mosquito's are vastly overpopulated in a certain area then sure okay, decrease the population.
Otherwise this is horrificly irresponsible. Yes they're a pain in the ass but if they're alive then they have a nitch in the exosystem and to make their numbers drop is going to have an enviromental reporcussion, without a doubt

 

[CODE-D]

Are we talkin the tiny black asian ones or the regular bigass brown ones.

 

[CODE-D]

Also
SCIENCE FOR THE WIN!!!!!

 

[kayisking]

Nooo! Mosquitos are awesome! Use the genophage on Ticks!

Let's just hope that in the future, we don't need mosquitoes to fight the Rachni

Hmm, let's hope this doesn't cause any unforeseeable environmental problems.

Nah, we'll do what the Salarians did and just give nukes to a lower species. Since this earth, I believe that would be monkeys.

I'm pretty sure the Salarians did not give the Krogan's Nukes. Didn't they "culturaly uplift" them after they were stuck in a self-created nuclear winter?

 

[Blatherscythe]

I wonder what species were gonna get to severely cripple next? Please oh please be spiders.

The Chinese, not a species per-se as they are a part of the human species, but they're overpopulated, at least in their own country.

On a serious note, this is messing with the food chain of an enviroment. The Mosquito is a pain in the ass sure, but they're lunch to many differant animals, which are food to other animals, etc. This won't end well, bioengineering is fine when it comes to producing better crop and produce yeilds, but fucking with the ecosystem has serious consequences.

 

[TheTurtleMan]

Yeah, fuck mosquitoes. All they contribute to society is malaria, yellow fever, bringing back dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and being a general pain in the ass (literally and figuratively).

I wouldn't say kill all mosquitos however, just a lot of them, particularly the ones in the woods near my house. Next step is taking out spiders and ticks.

Even if lowering the population of mosquitos ends up screwing over other parts of the ecosystem (which I doubt would happen anyway), this seems like one of those decisions where causing a decrease in a certain type of bird or frog higher up on the food chain would be worth it in the end.

 

[kayisking]

Nooo! Mosquitos are awesome! Use the genophage on Ticks!

Let's just hope that in the future, we don't need mosquitoes to fight the Rachni

Hmm, let's hope this doesn't cause any unforeseeable environmental problems.

Nah, we'll do what the Salarians did and just give nukes to a lower species. Since this earth, I believe that would be monkeys.

I'm pretty sure the Salarians did not give the Krogan's Nukes. Didn't they "culturaly uplift" them after they were stuck in a self-created nuclear winter?

I thought they gave the Krogan's advanced tech. I'm pretty sure Mordin said something like "giving nukes to cavemen".

I looked it up:

"Roughly 2000 years ago the krogan were a primitive tribal species trapped on a world suffering through a nuclear winter of their own making. They were liberated from this state by the salarians, who "culturally uplifted" the krogan by giving them advanced technology and relocating them to a planet not cursed with lethal levels of radiation, toxins or deadly predators."

 

[kayisking]

I guess so. They didn't give them nukes, but they did give them technology that they weren't ready for yet. I guess that's what Mordin meant with his analogy.

 

[Swifteye]

Wasn't there an episode on the wild thornberries where eliza helped the birds eat the larva better and the fish ran out of things to eat which cause like the whole area of animals to run out of food to eat? Why am I the only one that remembers that episode (because you were the only one that watched the wild thornberries). I'm pretty sure the morale of that story is to just let the circle be. Even if we could do things to it we really shouldn't because everything is already balanced and in classic human fashion we could(and have) thrown things way off balance. We try to set things right but we can never truly fix what we lost us as a result of us messing with the eco system and then trying to fix up whatever mistake that comes from it is like putting bandage on a broken leg.

So as terrible as these and flies and other creatures are. Let em be. they kinda deserve to do there job meanwhile we. Urrr. Lets just say we are a wild variable in the balanced calculated eco system.

 

[dyre]

Wow, I literally just had this conversation with a friend the other day.

Paraphrased
"Fuck, I just noticed I have a new mosquito bite!"
"Ugh, that sucks. You know what scientists should do? They should genetically modify a breed of mosquitoes to be sexier to other mosquitoes, but be unable to have kids!"
"Oh hell yeah. Let's patent the idea and make millions of dollars!"

Unfortunately, like other "brilliant" patents I come up with, this was quickly forgotten as we went on to comment on how slow the waiters were.

Release these fuckers in China. The mosquitoes here are legion D:

 

[Waffle_Man]

No way harming a large link in the food chain will have dire consequences...

 

[BrionJames]

Hhhmmm...I wonder what happens to the creatures that eat these mosquitos as part of their diet. Or is someone missing the point here? It's like if someone started to take away 80% of one of your main courses. Eventually I think this shit will bite us in the ass