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[Blue Lou]

From 14 July:

EARLY THIS MORNING, a white Mercedes Sprinter van began a delivery route along the streets of Fancher Creek, a residential neighborhood on the southeastern edge of Fresno, California. Its cargo? 100,000 live mosquitoes, all male, all incapable of producing offspring. As it crisscrossed Fancher Creek’s 200 acres, it released its payload, piping out swarms of sterile Aedes aegypti into the air. It’ll do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, from now until the end of December.

Though counterintuitive, the goal of this daily mosquito dump is actually to get … _fewer_mosquitoes. Specifically, fewer female Aedes aegypti, the ones that bite and lay eggs and transmit diseases, including the United States’ newest scourge: Zika.

https://www.wired.com/story/verilys-automated-mosquito-factory-accelerates-the-fight-against-zika/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVozrgEwi_Q

Blog: https://blog.verily.com/2017/07/debug-fresno-our-first-us-field-study.html

 

[elrechazado]

Good - faster please

 

[T.v]

This is one genocide I can get behind.
Next step is Wasps.

 

[shem935]

This is one genocide I can get behind.
Next step is Wasps.

Wasps kill spiders, you don't want to go down this road.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Science yo!

 

[elrechazado]

Wasps kill spiders, you don't want to go down this road.

Learn science pls:

SKINNER Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.

LISA But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?

SKINNER No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.

LISA But aren't the snakes even worse?

SKINNER Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.

LISA But then we're stuck with gorillas!

SKINNER No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

.

 

[ClosingADoor]

Do mosquitoes have any use in nature beside being annoying?

 

[tokkun]

Do mosquitoes have any use in nature beside being annoying?

They don't have much direct benefit to humans, but they are part of the food chain of the overall ecosystem. You could say the same about many species.

Mosquitoes get singled out not because of annoyingness, but because they can spread a lot of devastating diseases. I would not be surprised if we see some similar effort against ticks in the future.

 

[HStallion]

Can we do this with ticks as well? I don't think ticks are even a major food source for any other animal and they spread all manner of diseases as well. Fuck ticks.

 

[olag]

As someone who's had malaria several times, this pleases me.

 

[Kthulhu]

Wasps kill spiders, you don't want to go down this road.

Not those spiders that lay eggs in wasps.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

Not looking forward to the giant talking mosquitoes' loyalty mission in 10k years.

 

[Nerdkiller]

1:15 in...

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

How do additional sterile males reduce future populations? Do they like still mate and take away mating opportunities from fertile males?

 

[linkboy]

How do additional sterile males reduce future populations? Do they like still mate and take away mating opportunities from fertile males?

Yes

 

[TheContact]

Wipe out mosquitoes and ticks. Completely worthless creatures that don't benefit life in any way and kill millions

 

[riotous]

How do additional sterile males reduce future populations? Do they like still mate and take away mating opportunities from fertile males?

Little known fact; the "mo" in mosquitos refers to monogamy.

 

[S-Wind]

This is one genocide I can get behind.
Next step is Ticks.

FTFY