A coworker is an entomologist that previously worked on mosquito control. The gene drive work to control mosquitos is way more targeted than making all mosquitos extinct. It removes particular populations of a couple species. Still, there is plenty disagreement and many biologists are against it on moral grounds; we fuck up the ecology too much already
On a related note, a group of current collaborators have sought funding for a similar project for locust swarm control. Since they are only a big problem when swarming, we’re working on finding a gene-editing technique that will leave them healthy, capable of reproducing and being eaten by birds, but would prevent aggregating into swarms. So far no one is paying us to do it
There are over 3000 species of mosquitos. For all we have done to the world, it is so far very rare for us to have destroyed an entire family like that, unless there were only a few kinds left anyway. I’m sure this would be a great way to step up our game on that though.
isn’t locust swarming some sort of epigenetic thing where particular kinds of food pressure (the protein content in what the locusts are eating?) causes them to abruptly change behavior patterns? I’m remembering that from some podcast I heard a few years ago.
The idea from a cyberpunk novel that is not coming to me, where they used gene engineering to make the worst mosquitos allergic to a component of human blood, seemed like a better idea, they could still find other sources of blood, and survive as a species.
I use to be open to the idea of targeted extinction but honestly the fact humans can’t handle systematic approaches to problems soured me on the idea of any kind of manipulation of the food web. Mosquitos are major part of the insect biomass that feeds many other species, so to interfere with that could be disastrous.
I’m fine with the targeted extinction of smallpox or tuberculosis, or as @Brainspore says upthread, the viruses and parasites that mosquitoes carry, all of which are directly harmful to human beings. Targeting higher forms of life quickly becomes problematic. We just don’t know enough to make good decisions.
With a near 100% inheritance rate, the gene spread through the population and within 12 generations almost all females were sterile, and the populations crashed.
DDT killed almost all the mosquitoes it hit. Now we have DDT-resistant mosquitoes.
Yeah, I think focusing on making the virus and bacteria involved less effective at propagation in the carrier species sounds much better to me. Those are things we can store for research purposes (it’s what we did with smallpox if you didn’t know) but getting rid of such bacteria or viruses from the wild is fine.
Locust swarms are caused by density dependent phase change. When the population density reaches a threshold there is a sharp switch involving a mix of neurological, genetic, and epigenetic changes that causes them to drastically change behavior and appearance. The switch happens fast with full phase change taking only a couple days. They can also change back if left isolated.
The proximal cause of the change comes with a huge flood of serotonin in the nervous system immediately paired with lots of changes in gene expression. Their genome is larger than humans and wasn’t sequenced until last year so we are just starting to find what the mechanisms triggering the change are. We are 2-5 years away from having have a genetic modification that can prevent the swarming phenotype in the lab.
eta: there are also lots of changes in food selection and nutrient intake which we’re looking at as well, but it is likely a more downstream effect. Also: behavioralplasticity.org
I’m still open to the idea of a targeted extinction of, say, the main malaria-spreading mosquitoes; I just don’t think we can do the “targeted” part well enough to get all the mosquitoes we want, and not decimate other, non-targeted insects and other critters.
With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the ecological problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward, including widespread deforestation and misuse of poisons and pesticides.[9] Ecological imbalance is credited with exacerbating the Great Chinese Famine.[12][13] The Chinese government eventually resorted to importing 250,000 sparrows from the Soviet Union to replenish their population.[14]
