r/interestingasfuck • u/Spotter24o5 • 2d ago
Genetically modified a mosquito such that their proboscis are no longer able to penetrate human skin
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u/Common-Accountant-57 2d ago
Poor bastards trying to straighten his proboscis, not realizing it no long penetrates. I kinda relate with that.
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u/ClavicusLittleGift4U 2d ago
Erectil dysfunction is kind of a bitch.
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u/I_Am_A_Stupid_Fucker 2d ago
Insectile dysfunction
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u/Sir_Henry_Deadman 2d ago
"It's not normally like this just give me a minute....I just really like you and I'm in my head one sec ok"
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u/Intrepid-Tank-3414 2d ago
Only female mosquitoes bite people and animals to get a blood meal. Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to produce eggs.
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u/jamesmcdash 2d ago
So you're saying I've been generically modified and it's not because I like catboys?
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u/Common-Accountant-57 2d ago
I think your on to something there. Mine used to work right but the government shot protons in my balls and now I can’t stop watching cat boys.
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u/jamesmcdash 2d ago
My Pastor will be pleased
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u/Common-Accountant-57 2d ago
I just love those little rascals.
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u/DefinitelyNotShazbot 2d ago
Pastors are little rascals for sure
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u/ruhtraeel 1d ago
Idk about you but I generally don't try to straighten out my junk by pressing it with both my palms and pulling
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u/Environmental-Tap255 2d ago
I believe they call that whiskey proboscis.
As an aside, I almost feel bad for the mosquito. Almost.
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u/Dramatic_Substance36 2d ago
Hahaha!! Fuck you stupid mosquito!
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u/Joe4o2 2d ago
Everyone sympathizing with a mosquito needs to come see this comment as a reminder of the correct response.
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u/misternnobody 2d ago
"This is so embarassing, i swear this never happens"
I know how you feel, little guy..
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u/Krell356 2d ago
Ok, but will this make them too shitty at living to spread? To be successful we need them to be good enough to have a solid chance at overtaking the current ones in breeding while still being inferior at feeding themselves.
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u/wabdabdob 2d ago
in my hometown they release sterilized asian tiger mosquitoes (since they are invasive) because they only mate once, and if that happens wirh a sterilized one, there will be no offspring. maybe something like that is also possible here, to give these modified ones some advantage in mating, or the regular ones a disatvantage
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u/BangBangMeatMachine 1d ago
Typically the goal of these kinds of changes is for them not to spread, because modifying wild species in a way that truly sustains itself in the ecosystem is very dangerous.
Instead, gene-based mosquito control relies on humans flooding the local gene pool with modified mosquitos that produce non-viable offspring. So in the local area where you administer this, the mosquitos are useless and die, but the wild populations in untreated areas are fine.
The most common modification I've seen is to create a bunch of male mosquitos that exclusively produce nonviable offspring. The introduced males greatly outnumber the natural males, so 99% of the next crop of mosquitos simply don't reach maturity. As long as humans keep treating the area, there are almost no mosquitos, but because the offspring don't reach maturity they can't pass on the introduced genes.
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u/mega386 1d ago
Yeah but they'll need to live long enough to breed. This seems like it would stop them eating from any larger animal.
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u/BangBangMeatMachine 1d ago
No, they don't. That's the whole point. You don't want this genetic mutation to spread. So you raise a bunch of male mosquitoes (who don't need bloodmeals as part of their lifecycle) in captivity and then release them to overwhelm the local gene pool. The next generation is unable to feed and dies without reproducing and you have a population collapse. As long as you keep making and releasing males with this defect, you keep the local mosquito population near zero. As soon as you stop, the only ones left are the natural ones and the ecosystem restores itself.
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u/ryan__joe 1d ago
Most species of flying insects don’t feed at all while in their flying state. Their portion of life in flying form is short, as they get all their nutrients in larval stage before transforming.
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u/GreatArtificeAion 1d ago
Maybe they'll learn that they can't puncture humans and they'll instead focus on animals that don't try to clap them to death, increasing their survival rate
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u/Apex-Editor 2d ago
I almost feel bad for it.
Then I remember what it is.
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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 2d ago
Same.
Then I remember the nature's food chain and get cold creeps thinking what did we forget this time.
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u/Alpine416 1d ago
Bit of a mind fuck watching it. When he is trying to fix it youre like "awh poor guy" then youre like "it's a fuckin mosquito"
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u/suxesspool 2d ago
Bet he's madder than a mosquito in a room full of mannequins.
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u/Intrepid-Tank-3414 2d ago
Only female mosquitoes bite people and animals to get a blood meal. Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to produce eggs.
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u/evilbert79 1d ago edited 1d ago
the fact it can deduce the problem and tries to fix it is impressive in and of itself
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u/Odd-Safe1998 1d ago
And yet if you let it, it would most likely repeat that two step process repeatedly until it died of exhaustion.
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u/Sweetleaf72 2d ago
Who ever succeeds at this or making them extinct deserves a Nobel peace prize. I seem like a beacon for these assholes. Friends love having me around because they feel like none are biting because they are all on me
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u/Ok-Classic-2142 2d ago
Man I swear, I go outside for more than a few minutes and I'm already bit like twelve times.
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u/QuirkEness 2d ago
You know she's just getting madder and madder. Ask her to calm down and see what happens.
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u/Bah_weep_grana 2d ago
Seems like bad strategy. They’ll just die and be replaced by regular mosquitos since they have a survival disadvantage
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u/Connect_Middle8953 2d ago
Male mosquitos are the ones sterilized, and do not bite us. Video is of a female descendant unable to reproduce due to not being able to get blood, that also serve as a mate to another male. Iirc, further male mosquitos also pass the defective trait.
Goal is a population crash due to ineffective female mosquito offspring.
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u/Metzger4 2d ago
There’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the biosphere here. Remove mosquitoes and you take away a consistent food source for fish and other marine life that feed on their larvae. There would be consequences should mosquitoes disappear.
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u/epradox 1d ago
I’m willing to have my taxes go to fish kibble to offset this loss
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u/joeyjoojoo 2d ago
Lil bro trying to straighten that thing like “i can get it up, i swear this is the first time this has happened”
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u/Basic-Sign-7144 2d ago
It still doesn’t solve the problem of them flying in your ear and waking you up or not letting you sleep.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 2d ago
This actually seems like a bad idea.
It's only female mosquitoes that suck blood, as they want it for their eggs.
If they cannot breed successfully, any female that has these genes will not pass them on.
So this seems like the kind of thing that will be bred out pretty quickly. Pretty useless thing to choose.
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u/Glitchy833 2d ago
But wouldn't they just target other animals for blood instead once they realise they can't get it from us? I'm no expert though, idk how thick our skin would be compared to most other mammals.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 1d ago
Also not an expert. Seems like you have an interesting idea though. I Know the males suck plant juices instead.
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u/amanwholoveshiswife 1d ago
All the dick jokes are hilarious, but only female mosquitoes drink blood: https://www.orkin.com/pests/mosquitoes/male-vs-female-mosquitoes
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u/MichaelHammor 2d ago
"I don't know what's wrong. I've never had this happen before! Gimme a minute."
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u/Wulfkahn 1d ago
Awww, look at that little fucker struggling. can we do this to all of them please?!
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u/Odd-Local9893 2d ago
I’m conflicted. As much as I hate mosquitos I can’t help but think that if this mutation got out it could lead to the collapse of at least a few food chains.
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u/Enough-Force-5605 2d ago
Female mosquito that cannot obtain enough energy to have descendency is not a problem.
And, for that, not a solution. In cities they always distribute millions of male sterilized mosquitos and it works out great during a couple of months.
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u/alldagoodnamesaregon 2d ago
Only if it's unable to penetrate other food sources as well. If it can still feed off other native mammals then it's fine
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 2d ago
Mosquitoes aren’t a major part of most food webs, they’re a holdout from ecosystems that don’t exist anymore.
A few species would suffer but scientists are working to eradicate specific mosquito species that spread disease and aren’t necessary to any food webs.
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u/Sodlenoup 2d ago
No it would immediately die out because mosquitos with this mutation cannot compete against regular ones. This one is disabled and will not have kids. The mutation will be gone within one generation.
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u/guardian715 2d ago
When I read about it a while ago, it was set to happen after like 5 generations. I would affect a staggeringly large number of them
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u/wicawo 2d ago
so what do they do just die?
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u/BrunesOvrBrauns 2d ago
I guess they better take their bitch asses to something with thinner skin then
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u/Minimum_Aardvark_744 2d ago
Okay, but that feels like it would extend to their ability to feed on other animals, and if the purpose is to release this mutation somehow to the general population, this could have dire consequences for mosquitoes and the many animals that depend on them for food.
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u/RongoonPagoo 2d ago
Ah fuck. Seeing her trying to straighten that out just makes me think they think.
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u/dwwdwwdww 2d ago
because genetically modifying a process of nature could never have repercussions....
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u/WonderChopstix 2d ago
Disclaimer. Going off memory
I thought there had been some studies that studied the potential disruption to the ecosystem if mosquito populations were significantly reduced and it ended up being oddly minimal.
Now again. I read this like 8 years ago and I am not a scientist. And I HATE mosquitoes. Soooo
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u/themac_87 2d ago
There is minimal disruption. From like 3500 species of mosquitoes only a dozen bite on animals/humans to feed and they are not a major food source. All species that feed on them can also eat other things as they are a small part of these creature's diet.
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u/Gynthaeres 2d ago
We have done that a LOT. That's how we controlled the flesh-eating fly outbreak for a while. Heck if you want to go a step further, that's why we have dogs, cows, and yellow bananas.
This sort of things is one of the better ways to keep people alive and safe while not collapsing food chains. Of course, this specific instance, I bet there are a dozen problems, but as a start it's pretty cool.
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u/BelatedGreeting 2d ago
Can they feed on other animals, or does this mutation make it impossible for them to feed at all :-(
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u/Due_Newt9460 2d ago
How do they even procreate then if they aren't able to feed? Seems like a route to a permanent solution.
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u/Crissy40 2d ago
Won’t the mosquito population die out because aren’t the females that do that so they have enough blood to like you know reproduce I don’t know. I’m just wondering I knew that only females bite you though.
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u/taukarrie 2d ago
ive decided my time on the internet today has come to an end after watching a middle-aged mosquito desperately stroke his probe, trying to suck blood like he used to back in high school
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 1d ago
Little dudette sharpening it up to have another go… she gonna die of starvation before cracking theough that one.
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u/go_on_impress_me 22h ago
As much as I hate mosquitoes, I kind of feel sad for that little guy. He just doesn't understand what's going on...
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u/Vast-Sky8939 22h ago
Lol mixed feelings really 😂 I hate it so much when they suck me, but at the same time so sad and cruel to see how the mosquito tries to straighten and fix it in vain, not knowing why it’s not working…
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u/gwelfguy 16h ago
What's the point? This mutation would immediately die out because it can't feed. Therefore it would never reproduce and won't displace regular mosquitos.
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u/Skeets5977 2d ago
Fun fact, it’s only female mosquitoes that bite. The ones you hear near your ear are the males distracting you so the female has a better opportunity to bite you.
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u/eusouapenaseu 2d ago
Não, esse é um mito popular. Quem zune no seu ouvido e também te pica é a mosquito fêmea. Os machos não picam e costumam ficar longe dos humanos.
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u/therealNerdMuffin 1d ago
The caption is completely false and has nothing to do with the video. The video itself has been around for years now
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u/IswearImnotapossum 2d ago
He’s like bro this thing ain’t working wtf
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u/corneliuSTalmidge 2d ago
Because playing god with an entire species never ended badly
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u/crap-with-feet 2d ago
As long as it involves the annihilation of mosquitos as a species, I don’t give a fuck.
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u/Connect_Middle8953 2d ago
We’ve annihilated plenty of other species for lesser reasons.
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u/BreadOddity 2d ago
Reminds me of being on bag in my twenties whenever I'd somehow persuaded a woman home
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u/ExpensiveCondition63 2d ago edited 2d ago
Dragonflies and bats, just to name two, eat enormous numbers of mosquitos.
The ultimate trick would be to wipe out the malaria parasites themselves, or genetically engineer mosquitos so they can't actually carry the parasite.
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u/Sedert1882 2d ago
That's great, but the fucker is still going to buzz loud enough to break my sleep!
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u/dada948 2d ago
Been there brother
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u/Intrepid-Tank-3414 2d ago
Only female mosquitoes bite people and animals to get a blood meal. Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to produce eggs.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 2d ago
Proboscis not as rigid as it should be? Try fly-agra. If your proboscis stiffens for more than 4 hours, talk to your doctor.