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[Jak140]

It is damn amusing that some people are more afraid of that then a disease that might kill you.

80% of Americans are afraid of DNA in their food. Public ignorance of basic science would be funnier if it weren't such a serious problem.

 

[Catrollinginthewind]

Some of you might want to read the OP or end up banned. Up to you.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

As long as you're 100% sure they won't mutate beyond their purpose, you're free to keep it in Florida. We'll just nuke it if you screw up.

Can't have another Africanized killer bee incident.

It biologically can't pose a danger.

 

[Yamauchi]

Dengue is a terrible disease. I didn't know they had it in Florida, so I say go for it.

 

[Vicetrailia]

oops.

 

[Vicetrailia]

This isn't bad though. They are only releasing males with the aim of stopping pupa from developing....thus reducing population.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Can't really see too many risks here and it seems like it could help, good idea.

 

[Gurgelhals]

It biologically can't pose a danger.

 

[hateradio]

What if the herpes virus mutates and now we have herpes-positive mosquitoes in the wild.

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

British researchers and scientists.

You know who else was British?

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Mosquitos are the only animal that I'm totally okay with driving to extinction in the wild. I mean we can keep some in quarantined labs or something, like smallpox.

C'mon humanity, we've driven countless animals to extinction, why not one that'd we'd be happy to see gone?

And screw over the food source of other animals?

The evidence suggests otherwise.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

Your article is full of Maybes and "well maybe the animals might eat something else"

I agree with this. fuck Mosquitos.

and before anyone accuses me of cavalierly fucking with the biome; there's a very good argument to be made that we really would be better off - "we" being everything on earth that isn't a mosquito - without them. they occupy a fairly unique intersection of being horrible disease carriers AND not an essential food or driver to any other part of the environment.

I am happy to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable in this point, but this is my understanding. if we can modify them, we should. for humanity's sake of nothing else.

Seer the article above, in the attic tundra they are very important.

 

[Dr.Acula]

It biologically can't pose a danger.

We don't know. Humanity has been a VERY bad judge of how the food chain really works.

Did you know wolves stop erosion?

Mosquitoes and larvae are a food source for birds and fish. I know the writing says a minor source, but we're just guessing. If you snapped your fingers an all the mosquitoes disappeared, I'm pretty sure everything would be fine, but no one can really know.

 

[jts]

I, for one, welcome our new mosquito overlords.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Florida will fuck this up and kill us all.

He's right you know.

 

[tnaden]

British researchers and scientists.

 

[Coriolanus]

Dengue is a terrible disease. I didn't know they had it in Florida, so I say go for it.

Wasn't too bad the first time i got it. Just a couple of days with fever and some tingling.
Second to fourth time should be absolutely hellish, tho, should they ever happen. Haemorrhagies and stuff.

Then, immunity.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

We are going to do the same eventually in Australia with Cane Toads, all the offspring from the GM'd toads will be male.....

Eventually they will breed themselves extinct.

 

[themadcowtipper]

Pardon?

It is a myth that lovebugs were University of Florida genetics experiment gone wrong.

 

[terrisus]

Florida will fuck this up and kill us all.

Florida?...

Nah...

 

[Fudgepuppy]

GMO is fucking amazing.

Humanity should never accept an ill-fated future, always work towards prosperity among all. GMO is just that.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

What if the herpes virus mutates and now we have herpes-positive mosquitoes in the wild.

Herpes is already a complex virus and mutiple strains exists. It's not only an std and several species carry it.

 

[okno]

People are more okay with highly poisonous mosquito sprayings happening in their neighborhood than releasing an innocuous mosquito that doesn't bite and will kill off the bugs in a controlled manner.

I hate this world.

 

[jchap]

If making sexy infertile hunk mosquitoes is the answer to eliminating this species from the earth than I am all for it. How come we are so good at accidentally destroying entire species but when we try to do it we fail?

 

[fader]

you disappoint me...

boy this "Florida" joke is really annoying now. It's gone from a short jab to now a full blown hatred. Really eye rolling reading a lot of these posts.

 

[eot]

The evidence suggests otherwise.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

That's hubris and wishful thinking, not evidence.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

you disappoint me...

Hope that works.

 

[CDX]

Company spokeswoman Chris Creese said the test will be similar in size to Oxitec's 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96 percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.

Good. Let's get this going all over the world. And on even greater scales.

Let's totally eradicate every species of mosquito that bites humans. There are only 40 or so mosquito species that transmit disease to humans, then an additional several dozen that also bite humans.

If we do that it'd be up there as one of the great human achievements with antibiotics and vaccines.

We'll then leave the remaining 3,000+ species of mosquito unmodified that don't bother humans.

The evidence suggests otherwise.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

yep.

And now governments are actually doing it.


Mosquitoes that bite and transmit disease to humans could be extinct in our lifetimes.

 

[Coriolanus]

That's hubris and wishful thinking, not evidence.

I wonder if people once reacted that way to the smallpox vaccine.

 

[dluu13]

I didn't read any of the details but this sounds like the classic beginning of any invasive species story. Isn't ecology some pretty delicate balance that you have to be careful with? It looks like they're just gonna release these to kill all the mosquitos.

 

[elrechazado]

Florida?...

Nah...

That's two amazingly irrelevant non replies. As a reader of this thread I congratulate you for posting dumb memes that are completely nonsense but sadly typical for you. Race to post that one pic from your repertoire! Derp

On topic aside from the lololflorida garbage, this is a great idea. Dengue and other mosquito-bourne diseases are horrible. This is1000 times better than using DDT or other destructive pesticides.

 

[TacticalFox88]

you disappoint me...

boy this "Florida" joke is really annoying now. It's gone from a short jab to now a full blown hatred. Really eye rolling reading a lot of these posts.

Florida is a shithole of a state outside of a few cities here and there.

It's deserved its reputation.

 

[terrisus]

you disappoint me...

boy this "Florida" joke is really annoying now. It's gone from a short jab to now a full blown hatred. Really eye rolling reading a lot of these posts.

Florida?...

Nah...

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[More_Badass]

Damn it Florida...

Isn't the start to every Syfy horror movie? Genetically modified something escapes/is relased, death and mayhem ensues.

 

[terrisus]

People are more okay with highly poisonous mosquito sprayings happening in their neighborhood than releasing an innocuous mosquito that doesn't bite and will kill off the bugs in a controlled manner.

I hate this world.

Over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA”

 

[Violet_0]

has Florida Man gone too fa...

British researchers and scientists.

oh, it's alright everyone, we're safe

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Florida is a shithole of a state outside of a few cities here and there.

It's deserved its reputation.

You've described a lot of states and places in general.

 

[Fried Food]

I'm sure Great Britian isn't using this as an opportunity to wipe out all the rebels once and for all.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

I'm sure Great Britian isn't using this as an opportunity to wipe out all the rebels once and for all.

Look at the mosquito's under a magnifying glass, they all have tiny red coats on.

 

[themadcowtipper]

That's two amazingly irrelevant non replies. As a reader of this thread I congratulate you for posting dumb memes that are completely nonsense but sadly typical for you. Race to post that one pic from your repertoire! Derp

On topic aside from the lololflorida garbage, this is a great idea. Dengue and other mosquito-bourne diseases are horrible. This is1000 times better than using DDT or other destructive pesticides.

I agree with you, but isn't DDT banned almost everywhere, only used for disease vector control under strict guidelines by the WHO....

Damn it Florida...

Isn't the start to every Syfy horror movie? Genetically modified something escapes/is relased, death and mayhem ensues.

Reading, how does it work? It is a British lab...

 

[More_Badass]

I agree with you, but isn't DDT banned almost everywhere, only used for disease vector control under strict guidelines by the WHO....



Reading, how does it work? It is a British lab...

British researchers who built a breeding lab in Marathon, Florida

 

[elrechazado]

I agree with you, but isn't DDT banned almost everywhere, only used for disease vector control under strict guidelines by the WHO....



Reading, how does it work? It is a British lab...

Likely so, which is why I said or other harmful pesticides.

 

[TheSeks]

I'm fine with it. People need to stop worrying about Genetic Modifies so much. Not to say there isn't cause of worry, but in this case what harm would it be to have the GM gene that kills said mosquito get in your bloodstream?

Surely the scientists have ran tests on subjects before this?

 

[fluffydelusions]

I actually watched this on syfy lol

 

[MC Safety]

Call me when we're releasing genetically modified gorillas to destroy the Chinese snakes.

(Winter will kill off the gorillas.)

 

[Escape Goat]

Call me when we're releasing genetically modified gorillas to destroy the Chinese snakes.

(Winter will kill off the gorillas.)

unless they mate with a panda. Creating a gorillanda. Or pandarilla.

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

unless they mate with a panda

Pandas won't even mate with pandas. Let them die off.

 

[Tesseract]

this is great news

 

[Escape Goat]

Pandas won't even mate with pandas. Let them die off.

You have no soul.

 

[Toxi]

The idea that mosquitoes aren't an important part of the ecosystem is absurd. Their sheer numbers, combined with the protein the females ingest, means they are a large percentage of diets. An animal doesn't have to exclusively consume mosquitoes to be affected by their absence. No benign animal is going to fill their role because the mosquito's blood diet is what fuels their massive numbers.

That doesn't mean exterminating mosquitoes is a bad idea; they cause millions of people to suffer every year and we should prioritize stopping that over anything else. But denying their role in the ecosystem and the effects of exterminating them is wishful thinking.

I wonder if people once reacted that way to the smallpox vaccine.

Smallpox isn't a food source for other animals.

 

[kiunchbb]

Pandas won't even mate with pandas. Let them die off.

The solution is to GMO a lot of horny panda.