Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease
by Chardok on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:11PM
(#15665478)
I am also wondering how mosquito populations are affected by increasing human populations. I can imagine with a lot of left out garbage collecting standing water plus being a food source could have given mosquitoes a unnatural advantage.
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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease
by saulrh on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:21PM
(#15665565)
Garbage and standing water benefit all mosquitoes against non-mosquito competitors. We only need to consider whether biting humans benefits human-biting mosquitoes over non-human-biting mosquitoes, or separately whether carrying malaria benefits malaria-carrying mosquitoes over non-malaria-carrying mosquitoes; eliminating either trait would be sufficient. I believe that neither of these are powerful enough, meaning that the malaria-carrying human-biting species can be almost seamlessly replaced by non-human-biting or non-malaria-carrying species with no risk of the trait re-evolving or of the broader ecological niche, as tiny and unimportant as it is, failing to be re-filled.
Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease
by pm90 on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:25PM
(#15665590)
Is it that surprising? Populations of animals that depend on humans has generally expanded with people. This applies to livestock, pets, vermin etc.
Mosquitoes are prevalent even in super clean places, btw. I used to live by a small creek in Austin, TX and in the summers I could basically never enjoy my yard: it would be flooded by mosquitoes (the creek would have standing water which mosquitoes require to reproduce).