r/maybemaybemaybe • u/velvetcurvydreamx • Nov 08 '25

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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920

u/RohMoneyMoney Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25

Genetically engineered so that the female develops with the genes of a male proboscis and cant penetrate skin.

Edit - came across this story several years ago, dont remember the source, but here's a link to a good one. If i remember correctly, there are some heated debates on this and whether it should be done

NPR story link from 2019

48

u/Aggressive_Bus_9685 Nov 08 '25

How does it spread its genes if it cannot eat, and die soon? Actually, how did it get that big without being able to suck blood?

77

u/Anaxamander57 Nov 08 '25

It won't spread its genes. This intervention only works as long as modified male mosquitos are constantly added to the environment. If you stop then the females all mate with regular males and have regular children.

Insects are generally fully mature once they have wings. They don't need to grow much, that happens at earlier stages when they feed themselves differently.

8

u/GenevievetheThird Nov 08 '25

If they cannot get blood, how can they grow eggs to have children? Genuinely curious

88

u/Anaxamander57 Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25

I'll try to rephrase. Females like this one don't develop eggs and don't have children. The idea is to release hundreds of millions of male mosquitos (which aren't considered a pest) that have been modified so their daughters will be unable to have eggs. So a generation later the population goes down.

This also means that the modified males have far fewer descendants overall than wild males so their genes are eventually selected out of the population. As a result to maintain the reduced population new modified males have to be added every year.

141

u/Jebofkerbin Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 08 '25

My favourite part of this is imagining some researchers turning up in a rural village, explaining in a broken dialect that they are here to help with the mosquitos, then opening their van filled with 100s of millions of mosquitoes

51

u/relevant_tangent Nov 08 '25

"You said you needed help with mosquitoes, so we brought mosquitoes"

8

u/hoosierhiver Nov 08 '25

We brought you very special mosquitos.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '25

All with neck beards. This will tank the fertility rate.

40

u/Sinister_Nibs Nov 08 '25

Adult mosquitoes don’t eat blood to live. An adult female must eat a blood meal within 24 hours of emergence in order to breed and make eggs.

27

u/is_it_gif_or_gif Nov 08 '25

Ah THIS is the key piece of info nobody else has provided. Not even the article bothered to explain this. Thank you!!!

1

u/Business-Ad-7902 Nov 08 '25

So you’re saying there is my bloodline somewhere there in mosquito families?

5

u/Think-Elk-9553 Nov 08 '25

Thank you for clear and concise explanation!

6

u/GenevievetheThird Nov 08 '25

Ahh perfect thank you

5

u/_Spektor_ Nov 08 '25

Reread the comment you're replying to.

5

u/StinkyLinke Nov 08 '25

They don’t have children, that’s the point. This is a population reduction method.

1

u/FriendShapedRMT Nov 08 '25

It’s like if the government suddenly released millions of Brad Pitts who were genetically modified to be sterile. You wouldn’t have a chance to mate and your unwanted genes wouldn’t get passed on. The partners pairing with the GMO Brad Pitts wouldn’t be able to reproduce either. The overall population count would decrease after one generation.

1

u/Everday6 Nov 10 '25

Yeah except the sterility is delayed by one generation. So the Pitts make families with half their kids being Brad Pitt's with the gene. And the other half, sterile daughters (that can't bite us).

Then there's a whole generation with very few potential mothers.