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The-Fumbler t1_ivh3gh9 wrote

Reply to comment by SrslyCmmon in English company Oxitec has released a simple, easy to distribute commercial product they say cuts Dengue Fever spreading mosquito populations by 96%. By just adding water, genetically modified mosquito eggs mature into males whose sperm cannot result in viable female larvae. by lughnasadh

That would be an ecological disaster. Think of all the other animals that feed on said mosquitoes.

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SrslyCmmon t1_ivhbe37 wrote

There's already been studies to show there's enough non mosquito insects to feed from. In short, the world has tons of bugs. Also there's no animal that feeds solely on mosquitoes

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blahblahrasputan t1_iviiq8r wrote

Not that many animals feed on one thing so I don't think that is a very good argument. What I'd like to see is percentage of diet for each animal and then overall for each area, to see the impact. As well as the "accidental pollination" as it's called, that the males do since they feed on nectar and such, less pollination is always a negative.

I am not against the idea but I think there's a lot more to the eradicatin of a species than most of these studies seem to show...

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Ratvar t1_ivhagbf wrote

And don't forget animals whose population is reduced by such pests, no matter how ugly it sounds - too much wild goats/deers/bulls etc is a natural disaster too.

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