It Takes a Mosquito to Fight a Mosquito

What are bats going to eat?

Whenever I read an article like this, I feel uncomfortable. While it is laudable to want to reduce human suffering, I wonder if these disease carrying mosquitoes are filling some important ecological niche. Not long ago I read an excellent story in the New York Times Magazine about how insect populations are dying off. It was frightening. So this article by well meaning people raises more questions than it answers.

The opening paragraph has a contradiction in terms. If humans are the most dangerous animal on the planet, then mosquitoes that carry a host of vectors for illnesses that affect humans could be the most beneficial animal on the planet.

“Any time we play God with nature, we need to worry about the consequences. But Wolbachia is natural” We’re not playing god, we’re playing human. In case you didn’t know it, humans are natural too, just like Wolbachia. Not everything that is natural is good. Poison hemlock is natural. Have a cup.

This strategy will work for a while. Anyone who argues that we shouldn't be attacking mosquito diseases doesn't understand world or American history. The south was rife with malaria and other fevers, spread by mosquitoes, until the early 20th c. It's a primary reason S. Carolinian farmers had to "import" semi-resistant Africans - their own children died from malaria, unlike northern kids. DDT eliminated malaria in southern Europe and the U.S., but wasn't applied indiscriminately. It was sprayed on residential walls by hand. 'Silent Spring' was caused by agribiz using crop dusters to spray orders of magnitude more on crops. Malaria still kills 1/2 a million in Africa, and reduces productivity of 50 million more, yearly. It's caused by a complex organism that infects both mosquitoes and humans as part of its life cycle. A vaccine is theoretically possible - the real goal. Unfortunately, Americans and other developed world citizens are so removed from the scourge they don't appreciate the funding need.

Is there a way to support this program, since it’s not going to be profitable?

So the Luddites have already swarmed to the comments section to warn us of possible but not probable dire consequences of reducing or eliminating the death dealing mosquito population. I am sure this most recent attempt to do that using a bacteria to infect the mosquitoes that seems not nearly as effective and more cumbersome than prior experiments using gene altered mosquitoes was forced on scientists by the Luddites screaming Franken Bugs are being released when planned releases were publicized. I might be in a minority but I believe saving humans from malaria, Zika Virus, West Nile Virus, Dengue etc is far more important than doing nothing because of unfounded fears based on ignorance of medicine and science.

Let's consider for a moment that mosquitoes, of any species, are an element of the larger food chain, and thus necessary to supporting some other creature's biology, which in turn supports still other life, right on to us. Eliminating mosquito populations, with the kind of for-profit, wipe them out thinking indicated here . . . "Most Americans don’t worry about dengue and Zika — yet — but would love to see fewer mosquitoes. Dr. Stephen Dobson, a professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky, founded MosquitoMate, a for-profit company that works with mosquito-abatement programs in the United States. MosquitoMate’s largest projects are in Fresno, Calif., and Miami, with more than 150 acres treated in each city." is potentially catastrophic. Mosquitoes can be annoying, and yes, they can spread disease. But removing them entirely from the environment is a risky, dangerous, fool-hardy solution. Population replacement sounds to me like the most sustainable and environmentally balanced approach.

This is good news, though the article is a drawn out and written in a bad way for a Pulitzer Prize winner! All tropical countries are menaced by mosquitoes and insecticides are not the solution. Mosquitoes are equal-opportunity pests that menace rich and poor alike and need to be neutralized.

“Any time we play God with nature, we need to worry about the consequences. But Wolbachia is natural — most insect species already carry it. “ That statement is a red herring. Just because Wolbachia is “natural” does not mean we aren’t playing with nature, nor does it mean we don’t have to be concerned about possible consequences. A possible consequence: Suppose mosquito populations in an area are greatly reduced or eliminated. That might create a population collapse of animals that often consume mosquitoes, such as frogs, toads, lizards, and bats. And if frogs, toads, and lizards become less numerous, that could reduce the food supply for snakes (and many mammals). Lose the snakes, and you’ve removed or reduced major predators of mice and rats. I believe possibly trading a reduction of mosquitoes for an increase of mice and rats means we DO “need to worry,” or at least consider, the consequences. Please note: I’m not against the methods being employed. I’m only disagreeing with the claim that because Wolbachia is “natural” that it means we don’t have to be concerned about possible consequences.

I hate mosquitos as I'm guessing most humans do, but I believe they serve a higher purpose of sorts. First, as others have mentioned, they serve as a building block of the food chain. Second, they keep our forests safe...from us! If mosquitos were to dwindle in number or their health impact become less severe, I imagine that major swaths of tropical forests could be threatened.

This is a terrible idea and I can't believe we have not learned from such ecological disasters as the introduction of kudzu to control dust, and the cane toad. Please stop this program now - mosquitos are the krill of the earth, and many many species relie on them for food. https://www.orkin.com/other/mosquitoes/mosquito-predators/

I use tea tree oil for everything. I put tee tree oil on mosquito bites and it takes away the sting and doesn't get infected. I use Thursday Plantation tee tree oil for everything as it's 100% pure tea tree oil. I used to be allergic to bee stings until I discovered tea tree oil and put tea tree oil on them daily and after three days the bee sting has stopped being itchy and cleared up. Just had a number of stings on the sole of my foot and all gone after three days. In winter I put some on a tissue and keep near bed so as to not get flu or cold. I've also read it's the only thing that is resistant to superbugs.

Can anyone explain what mosquitoes are good for? Flies and such at least clean up huge amounts of deceased animal life, but mosquitoes seem to have no purpose other than annoyance to animals & humans plus the spread of disease.

If humans are the most dangerous animal, what about the hundreds of thousands of who won't die annually due to mosquito borne diseases? Which is the greater danger?

Mosquitoes can't decide which virus they carry. The mosquitoes are like any other animal they want to transmit their genes. They need blood they don't have a conscious disease spreading strategy. Global warming has moved the mosquito population to the north into what used to be more temperate regions. Certainly pesticides are a blunt instrument to attack the problem. New genetic efforts seem the only the way to attack the problem but then there is always the threat of unintended consequences.

Really interesting article, but honestly it’s not true about Townsville: its a horrible, ugly city, and anybody who makes the trip all the way there has made a terrible mistake and needs to get out as quickly as possible (preferably to the Great Barrier Reef while it’s still mostly alive).

Would really love to see a follow up on what would happen up the food chain if mosquitoes were eliminated.

Makes you wonder about those folks in the Keys in Florida who constantly fight against programs like these to eradicate mosquitos.

Mosquitos are far more dangerous to humans than other humans. Each year about 2.7 million people are killed by Mosquito-born diseases.

"That’s the mosquito that carries Zika and dengue, which infects 400 million people per year." it sez here. This is confusing, even if we ignore the plural subject and singular verb. The population of Africa is about a billion-two. Does everybody get these diseases every three years, or one this three and then the other the next? Or do we toss in Asia for another 4.7 billion people? OK, everybody gets these diseases four times in a sixty-year lifetime, is that it? The disease that's endemic here is the inability of many journalists to get the idea of rates, a this per that, straight in their heads, in their notes, and then in their articles. There is obviously a muddle of some sort here, and I wish the editors of the Times would innoculate their staff.

Thank you for a most interesting angle of what science, and technology, can achieve to stop mosquito-infected diseases. Given that the Wolbachia effect may simulate antiviotic resistance as time goes by, may we assume there is still research towards vaccination?

Are there consequences up the food chain? Who eats mosquitos, or needs mosquitos for some other purpose?

Unfortunately this article gives no hint of why Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes have reduced ability to transmit viral diseases. Here is a nice explanation from the World Mosquito Program: "Wolbachia works in two ways within a mosquito. The first way is to boost the natural immune system of the mosquito to make it harder for the mosquito to support the Zika, dengue or chikungunya infection. If the mosquito can’t get infected, then it can’t transmit these viruses to people. The second way Wolbachia works is by competing against viruses for key molecules like cholesterol. Both the viruses and Wolbachia need cholesterol to survive inside the mosquito. When Wolbachia is present, it consumes these molecules and makes it harder for the viruses to grow. If it’s harder for the viruses to grow, then it’s harder for them to be transmitted."

"the job will have to be done by governments, because there’s little profit in it" What say ye, Repubs? If you are true-to-form, this solution will be abandoned, because 'the market' is bypassed.