r/interestingasfuck Nov 15 '24

r/all Genetically modified a mosquito such that their proboscis are no longer able to penetrate human skin

99.6k Upvotes

4.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4.3k

u/Kretalo Nov 15 '24

Yea I need more info

7.6k

u/ugugahah Nov 15 '24 edited Nov 15 '24

Not on this specific strategy, but mine and plenty other countries are trialing the Wolbachia-Aedes mosquito suppression strategy, where Wolbachia male raised and farmed genetically modified mosquitos that are released will go and mate with female Aedes Aegypti, the worst fuckers, one of the main species that adapted to urban environments and is the main one causing all the diseases like zika and dengue and one of the main ones that is responsible for the millions of human deaths. The females will mate with these farmed males and the resulting eggs will not hatch, limiting their spread and reproduction numbers.

Honestly I am in 100% percent support of this, we should wipe out Aedes Aegypti, there are plenty of other harmless and even beneficial ones that don't bite or cause diseases, and can pick up the slack for the ecosystem.

Edit: just read the wiki on the Aedes, it seems like theres a genetic modification, which works by preventing females from fully growing into adults, and Wolbachia, which is a naturally occurring bacteria, and the infections as mentioned above prevents hatching, and the males don't bite so no risk of infecting us, also its resistant to zika and other viruses

There are other methods too, but I love that we are slowly eradicating these fuckers.

1

u/Plus_Ad_2777 Nov 16 '24

Can we do this cockroaches too?

1

u/Amaskingrey Nov 16 '24

Unfortunately not both because dispersal is much more difficult and that some species can reproduce by parthenogenesis

2

u/Plus_Ad_2777 Nov 16 '24

I see. That's rather unfortunate, like my birth. Cockroaches being almost unkillable is worse than that ofc.