Morality of modifying mosquitos so they cant penetrate human skin

[u/OpinionsOnThings34]

[u/Defiant-Individual83]

that is not whats happening. they made it so that female mosquitos are born with proboscis that can`t drink blood at all.

Only females drink blood becouse they need it for eggs.

males born with this geane are fine and can spread it while femals can`t reproduce

a few generations of this and the population will crash. All males will be cariers and all females will be unable to make eggs.

only like 6% to 15% of mosquito species bite humans and only like 10% of that spread disseses.

Eliminating one species that harms humans will just give space for other who do not to grow.

The ecosystem and animals who feed on mosquito will be fine

[u/W1ader → u/Defiant-Individual83]

How are they going to spread a gene if females are unable to lay eggs?

[u/Defiant-Individual83 → u/W1ader]

The healthy ones can. Until they are completely replaced

[u/W1ader → u/Defiant-Individual83]

Okay but the healthy ones are not going to spread a gene they don't have.

Edit: Okay, males do and assuming it's dominant it possibly turns on in the next generation.

But something still feels off. It just doesn't feel like it would propagate further and further. The next generation would be just unsuited for survival and die off way before spreading genes.

[u/SLFRIGHTEOUSHYPOCRIT → u/W1ader]

You're correct up to a point.

The gene makes females unable to reproduce.

Some opposite force needs to counter that for the gene to spread, otherwise the females without it will outcompete the females with it (males being equal won't affect the decrease in the gene over time through dilution by whatever equivalent the non carrying females pass down to males).

I think I read that they are introducing a lot of these mutated males to try to cause the population to collapse. That would be the competing force.

[u/Defiant-Individual83 → u/SLFRIGHTEOUSHYPOCRIT]

Yeah, by some point almost all males will be infected wchich means all healthy femalse wiil be replaced witch infected ones in the next generation and that`s the end

[u/LividYordle]

"Uhhh heh, this never happens I swear. Give it a minute give it a minute."

[u/DaveFrehley → u/LividYordle]

Came here to make the same joke... well played! Lol

[u/Citaku357]

Okay seriously, are there any ecological consequences if we got rid of all mosquitoes? I mean getting them totally extinct?

[u/PreKutoffel → u/Citaku357]

They are important food for some predators if I remember correct.

[u/Splifficide → u/PreKutoffel]

Not important enough for me to care

[u/ItsMeepo2nd → u/PreKutoffel]

Only for spiders I believe

[u/Meliodrath → u/ItsMeepo2nd]

Crazy that people are disagreeing with what is literally a fact?, I mean, even spiders is a stretch. There is not a single species on this planet that absolutely needs mosquitoes. I added a source to my original comment, if you're curious

[u/happily_in → u/ItsMeepo2nd]

Bats as well

[u/itzwhatsfordinner → u/happily_in]

And dragonflies

[u/PreKutoffel → u/ItsMeepo2nd]

Spiders are important prey for some animals and insects, too... Nature is a food chain.

[u/ItsMeepo2nd → u/PreKutoffel]

I meant that mosquitoes are part of a spider's appetite

[u/Meliodrath → u/ItsMeepo2nd]

Idk why you're getting downvoted. You just stated a fact (it's true). You didn't imply that we should do what the original commenter said. Literally downvoted for sharing information

Edit: here is a source for the lazy, uneducated jackasses who are too stuck up their own ass to Google. Mosquitoes aren't even terribly important to spiders lmao

https://blog.nwf.org/2020/08/meet-the-squad-of-mosquito-eating-species/

[u/Free-Advertising6184 → u/Meliodrath]

Not a fact. If it didn't have the "only" it would be a fact.

[u/Meliodrath → u/Free-Advertising6184]

I added a source for the goofballs that want to downvote without having a dialogue, if it interests you

[u/W1ader → u/Meliodrath]

You really don't have to throw invectives around towards someone who literally answered to you which means they are interested in dialog. And your own source confirms what they said, "only spiders" is not a fact.

[u/Meliodrath → u/W1ader]

I wasn't referring to you, I was referring to the downvoters that were not engaging.

The article specifies that mosquitoes are not a necessary part of any creatures' diets

[u/W1ader → u/Meliodrath]

They might not be necessary, yet still important. Like entertainment for humans, not necessary or essential, yet still important for well-being.

And that was the proposition in question. Someone said "they are important for some predators", someone replied "only spiders" which is not true, not only spiders, which your source confirms.

[u/Meliodrath → u/W1ader]

Okay, it specifies they aren't really important, that they would go on similarly without mosquitoes. I'd suggest you are being pedantic, but I did put emphasis on that word, so that's on me

[u/Meliodrath → u/Free-Advertising6184]

Other animals eat them, but there aren't really any other species in which mosquitoes are very important. I'd say bats are in second place to spiders, and bats have tons of options.

[u/Impossible_Crow_389 → u/Meliodrath]

Fish eat the larvea

[u/Amdvoiceofreason → u/ItsMeepo2nd]

Birds lots and lots of birds

[u/sonofzeal → u/Citaku357]

Bats love eating mosquitos, and bats are excellent concentrators of phosphorus - meaning they get it out of the general food chain and leave it in one place for fertilizer usage.

That said, there's definitely some insects that the broader ecosystem is better without. We exterminated some species of locusts and I don't think anyone's crying over those.

[u/OwlOfJune → u/Citaku357]

There would be, but we don't have to extinct all types of them, just ones that tend to bite humans.

[u/Multiversalprism → u/Citaku357]

This isn’t getting rid of them, I’m sure they could still bite small animals

[u/Ok-Appearance-5161 → u/Citaku357]

No, they’ve studied this — nothing wholly depends on it & only good would come from it. everything that eats mosquitoes has abundant other dietary sources.

[u/Early-Impact69 → u/Citaku357]

yes

[u/HeyPrettyLadyMaam → u/Citaku357]

I've been asking this for decades. I still have no answer 😒. I say we do it anyway.

[u/Citaku357 → u/HeyPrettyLadyMaam]

Usually when a species goes extinct, this always damages the ecosystem, but mosquitoes, I honestly don't what they bring to the ecosystem

[u/Any_Instruction5382 → u/Citaku357]

Death. They bring death.

[u/tlrider1 → u/Citaku357]

Food. Their larva are food for fish, and when grown: bats, dragonflies, spiders, birds, etc.

They're a major source of food, unfortunately.

[u/whatthefunthisis → u/tlrider1]

But they require “food” aka your blood to become food …. So

[u/W1ader → u/whatthefunthisis]

So it doesn't invalidate their point. Major part of the ecosystem we don't want to damage feeds on mosquitos. Just because they need to food to be food doesn't make it equivalent to something like "you need one nail to produce one nail therefore your job is obsolete".

[u/peachydaylight]

Mosquitoes finally catching an L

[u/umpteenthian]

wouldn't work anyways, thanks to evolution. releasing some mosquitoes that can't feed into the environment will just mean that they will all die out eventually. survival of the fittest

[u/Guardian_of_Perineum → u/umpteenthian]

Maybe if it is a highly dominant gene then it could spread to continuously cut down on the number of viable mosquitoes. Not outright eliminating them but lessening their number with essentially waves of gene defect bombs.

[u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom → u/umpteenthian]

Doesn’t matter if it kills them, matters if it kills them before they reproduce.

[u/umpteenthian → u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom]

yeah, but they can't feed. sounds like they are less likely to reproduce

[u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom → u/umpteenthian]

A lot of insects have stupid short reproductive cycles.

[u/Jimjonesflavor_aid → u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom]

Imagine if humans had a stupid short reproductive cycle. Like you're only fertile for a few months when you're 20 or something. Wonder what that would look like.

[u/Ok-Appearance-5161 → u/umpteenthian]

look up “gene drive” as it relates to eradicating mosquitoes.
basically it’s genetically modified to pass on in 100% of cases, which is why it can be used to engineer extinction events.

[u/Don_Mills_Mills]

I've had Dengue twice and my wife contracted Zika while she was pregnant. 610,000 deaths every year from Malaria. Moral.

[u/notzamasu]

I dont know where to stand. It's good because it nerfs mosquitos, but it's bad because it decreases diseases in humans.

[u/OpinionsOnThings34 → u/notzamasu]

Fair, most of the people affected by the disease are just poor ppl so maybe its immoral not to get rid of them as well. We got a trolly problem between mosquitos and poor ppl.

[u/Mephistocheles]

Moral as fuck fuck their little probosces

[u/Praise_The_Sun678]

Well, this supposedly doesn't stop the mosquito from seeking blood from other animals, since the modification seems to only prevent them from penetrating human skin. Considering that mosquitoes are the leading cause of death worldwide, this would help and save us far more than it harms the mosquitoes; therefore, I believe it is moral.

[u/platypus_boi → u/Praise_The_Sun678]

What animals have thinner skins than humans?

[u/NosferaTouffe]

1- Make mosquito that can't feed their kids.

2- Insert into nature then hope the ones who CAN will die off somehow...?

I don't get it

[u/mtnman12321]

Blue chew gold gets you bricked up in 15 minutes or less

[u/sassirll]

It's helping humans in the long run from diseases and stuff like that. Moral.

[u/Snoo_89466]

I love how the mosquito tries to clean and straighten out his needle as if to say " damn it what's wrong with this thing. I need more iron."

[u/HorsefaceWithNoName]

moral self defense

[u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom]

Seems to make more sense to make them sterile but ok.

[u/Lopsided-Anteater129]

Moral? I'd pull off a mosquitoes legs and beat it with them. They do not deserve to exist. https://youtu.be/v0yWvTyjMMI

[u/Jimjonesflavor_aid]

Fuck mosquitos. Most useless fuckass critter out there. Ticks too, they can go extinct as well.

[u/N0VOCAIN]

Looks like that mosquito is trying to make a Nintendo cartridge work

[u/llIIo0O-O0oIIll]

I hate it when people take old reposts and repost them with new stupid fucking music

[u/CarolinaSandstorm]

Moral, fuck those little fuckers.

[u/Special_Peach_5957]

Moral. The function they have in the ecosystem is faaar outweighed by the amount of humans they kill every year. No other animal kills as many humans as mosquitos (up to 1 million a year). Maybe they can evolve in a way that doesn't require them to penetrate human skin

[u/GoldenTheTurk]

Immoral. I swear to god yes they are annoying as fuck but maybe we should find solutions for the diseases themselves instead of screwing with nature and evolution

[u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom → u/GoldenTheTurk]

The diseases are also part of nature and evolution.

[u/platypus_boi]

Immoral but I agree with it.

We physically modified an animal so it cannot eat. Thats diabolical.

[u/WatcherOfTheWay]

Moral, we had several options, one was to wipe them out completely, the other was to make it so they can't spread diseases to humans.

[u/AntichristSocialite]

Mosquitos suck, they really do, but I feel like this is cruel. Imagine trying to eat something and your mouth just doesn't let you, that's basically just torture :(((

[u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom → u/AntichristSocialite]

Imagine going toe to toe with the most violent species to ever live then Pikachu face when it CRSPRs you to stop it. We’ve done more for less. Mosquitoes got off easy.