US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by partycoder on Thursday November 09, 2017 @02:50PM (#15665315)

Mao started a campaign to kill all sparrows because they eat the "grain of the people".

Well, right after that, insects started proliferating, so then they had to exterminate all of them.

Among the insects killed, pollinators died. So that region now looks completely Marsformed and now all agriculture required pollination by hand.

Killing a species can start a slippery slope.

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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by DigitalJack on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:00PM (#15665394)

I've heard this story before. I think it was on a documentary about the source of General Tso's Chicken (and I'm not making a joke), but I don't recall for sure... Do you have a reference?

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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by partycoder on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:49PM (#15665765)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign

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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by josiahtu on Thursday November 09, 2017 @02:54PM (#15665351)

Sure but not all species play an equally critical role in the ecology.

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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by partycoder on Friday November 10, 2017 @01:04PM (#15671692)

Insects and fish eat mosquito larva. That means you would be affecting numerous other species by removing the mosquito.

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