
Mosquitoes Changed Everything - sasvari
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/how-mosquitoes-changed-everything
======
nickgrosvenor
More politicians should campaign on eradicating mosquitoes in their local
communities using gene editing. In the last decade Los Angeles has been
infested with Aedes mosquitoes. A much more dangerous type than the culex
we’re used to.

They need much less water to grow eggs, Attack the lower body of humans
quickly in short bursts so they’re harder to swat, and can transfer all the
dangerous diseases mosquitoes are known for.

Very scary and very solvable before it gets out of hand.

[https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-
aedes-m...](https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-aedes-
mosquitoes-california-20180901-story.html)

~~~
Luke-Jr
Is it indeed possible to eradicate mosquitoes? Outside my house at certain
parts of the day, there's tons and it only takes a few seconds to get swarmed.
:(

What is the latest-and-greatest mosquito extermination tech?

~~~
acdha
We bought some GAT traps to thin the swarms of tiger mosquitos we have in DC
and it seems to be working:

[https://us.biogents.com/bg-gat/](https://us.biogents.com/bg-gat/)

What I really want to mature is the photonic fence but that’s been slow going:
[https://photonicsentry.com/](https://photonicsentry.com/)

------
cnorthwood
There's a lot of interesting work in eradicating malaria. Genetically modified
mosquitos is one of them, which deserves careful watch
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-
diseas...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-
disease/mutant-mosquitoes-can-gene-editing-kill-malaria/).

The Centre for Effective Altruism looks at ranking charities on effectiveness,
and the Against Malaria Foundation always ranks very highly.

~~~
mycall
I'm waiting for the laser defense system for my back yard.

~~~
swagasaurus-rex
Where is the technology for this? This is an idea I had as a kid, everything I
learned about science deems this possible.

~~~
mhb
[https://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_z...](https://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria/transcript?language=en)

~~~
MagnumOpus
Yes, I think this guy Myhrvold (who got rich managing some smart scientists at
MS) owns a patent trolling business and slapped a patent on it, so nobody else
can make and sell a mosquito laser cannon. The devil incarnate, apparently.

~~~
xj9
the key word being make _and_ sell. the design is publicly available, you just
need to have the patience to build one yourself and you can have anything you
like _even if it is patented_

~~~
throwaway07Ju19
IIRC technically patent law prohibits you from making it even if you don't
plan on selling.

~~~
brlewis
Yes, you recall correctly.

[https://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-
inform...](https://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-information-
concerning-patents#heading-2)

The key word is not _and_ , but _or_. “the right to exclude others from
making, using, offering for sale, or selling”

------
LeoPanthera
I don't know if it's too off-topic but I'd be happy to hijack these comments
for a quick discussion of the best way to get rid of mosquitos from around
your home. I live in the mountains in California and the little buggers are
everywhere.

I bought a UV bug zapper without realising that mosquitos are apparently not
attracted to UV. I later learned that they are attracted to CO2, but
discussion of CO2 traps on the web imply that they also work very poorly.

Is there anything that can be usefully done?

~~~
nightfly
Try and make sure you don't have any pools of stagnant water around. (long
lasting puddles, buckets, other random concavities water can collect in.)

~~~
whiddershins
Unless you live on a very large property, the range of the mosquitoes usually
far exceed the range of your control over standing water.

~~~
learc83
That depends on the species. Some species tend to stay within a few hundred
feet of their breeding grounds, while others can travel for miles (but even
then many will still tend to stay very close by).

------
oska
> The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

The mosquito is a parasite, not a predator.

When the author of the book mislabels the ecological niche occupied by the
mosquito in the title of his book it gives little confidence in his rigour or
level of insight.

~~~
ceejayoz
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism#Micropredator)

> A micropredator attacks more than one host, reducing each host's fitness at
> least a small amount, and is only in contact with any one host
> intermittently. This makes them suitable as vectors as they can pass smaller
> parasites from one host to another. Most micropredators are hematophagic,
> feeding on blood. They include annelids such as leeches, crustaceans such as
> branchiurans and gnathiid isopods, various dipterans such as mosquitoes and
> tsetse flies, other arthropods such as fleas and ticks, vertebrates such as
> lampreys, and mammals such as vampire bats.

[https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-
a-m...](https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/58169/why-is-a-mosquito-
feeding-on-human-blood-not-a-parasite)

> A mosquito is a biological parasite, it is not a medical parasite.

Plus, it's a figure of speech talking about the fact that they kill a lot of
us humans.

~~~
oska
I question the redefinition of _predator_ , an organism that hunts and
consumes its prey, in this term _micropredator_. I wonder how accepted and
widespread its use is.

And the author doesn't use this much more restricted term. He didn't title his
book _A Human History of Our Deadliest Micropredator_. Because he's going for
sensationalism, as is more fully demonstrated in quotes from the book given
later in the article:

> In total, Winegard estimates that mosquitoes have killed more people than
> any other single cause—fifty-two billion of us, nearly half of all humans
> who have ever lived. He calls them “our apex predator,” “the destroyer of
> worlds,” and “the ultimate agent of historical change.”

To your own assertion that mosquitoes kill a lot of humans - they only do so
_indirectly_ as a vector for disease. This is a very important distinction -
if we are going to eradicate anything it would be better to eradicate the
microbial killer parasites they carry, such as _Plasmodium falciparum_ , not
the carriers themselves (which are an important food source for many actual
predators).

------
tomrod
Because the advantages are obvious, what are the disadvantages of killing all
mosquitoes?

~~~
Tiktaalik
When has humans meddling in ecologies ever worked fine without huge negative
side effects?

~~~
namdnay
Eradicating smallpox?

~~~
wetpaws
Also polio.

~~~
RobAtticus
We have not yet eradicated polio globally. This year has actually been a
setback in number of cases:

[http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/this-
week/](http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-now/this-week/)

~~~
wetpaws
It's bad, but still 99% down from what we had in 80-s :)

------
SubiculumCode
Biting mosquitoes is one of the few species I have no qualms about
eradicating. Other related species do all the kinds of work in the ecosystem
that they do, but without nearly the risk to humans. Eradicate them.

------
Rothnargoth
Pretty interesting knowing mosquitoes were weaponized in the past. The irony
in the fact this took place in the modern era, and not in medieval times,
where they were known for catapulting diseased carcasses.

------
aussieguy1234
Here's one solution:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive)

The costs are so low that even a developing country could afford to do it, at
a cost way lower than mosquito control by other methods.

Sure there are unknown consequences, but that probably won't stop them if
their fellow countrymen are dying.

------
akkartik
Has there been any research into eradicating the _Plasmodium_ parasite, rather
than mosquitoes?

~~~
_delirium
There's a lot of research into anti- _Plasmodium_ drugs in general (because
they can be used in treating infected humans), but none have come close to
being usable for general environmental dispersal that would try to eliminate
the wild reservoir. Mixture of cost, resistance developing too quickly, and
effects on other wildlife, so doing something like dropping quinine into
forests from planes has never been a real option. This is in general very
unlikely to work for diseases that have a significant non-human reservoir.
Smallpox was able to be eliminated because it exclusively infects humans, so
you only need to eradicate it from human hosts, not also from another
extremely populous host like wild mosquitoes.

Another approach is to try to genetically engineer mosquitoes resistant to
infection and have them replace the unmodified carrier versions, but that's
essentially just a variant of the idea to eradicate the carrier-type
mosquitoes: [https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-
matters/enginee...](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-
matters/engineering-malaria-resistance-mosquitoes)

------
gen220
I had a sci-fi-plot idea while swatting my nth mosquito on a camping trip last
month.

What if we figured out how to repurpose mosquitos to deliver useful viruses
instead of harmful ones? Just think about it: no more scheduling appointments
for vaccines or flu shots, simply wait outside for 20 minutes in the summer,
and before you know it you’re immunized against malaria, measles, etc.

Not being a biologist, I have no idea if this is a plausible scenario, but I
hope that somebody investigates it! It might be a very cost-effective and
democratic method of delivering care.

At the very least it’d make for a good black mirror episode :)

~~~
coldtea
> _What if we figured out how to repurpose mosquitos to deliver useful viruses
> instead of harmful ones?_

Yeah, what could go wrong with this? It's not like those "useful viruses"
could ever evolve out in the wild to something more threatening!

~~~
gen220
A great sci-fi plot! heh

But to be clear, some vaccines are "useful viruses"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuated_vaccine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuated_vaccine)

Also gene therapy often uses viruses as a vector for delivery:
[https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/therapy/procedures](https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/therapy/procedures)

So, it's not _too_ crazy an idea.

~~~
brooksyd2
I'm not an expert in this area by any means, but my understanding is that
vaccines use dead viruses rather than live ones, and they need a particular
amount over time. So this wouldn't allow the virus to be passed along by
mosquito generations, and you obviously couldn't control the dose amount. So
not sure how practical the idea would be.

------
chovy
[https://thedailyshitter.com/getting-rid-of-those-pesky-
mosqu...](https://thedailyshitter.com/getting-rid-of-those-pesky-mosquitos-in-
the-backyard/)

------
DoctorBit
An interesting article about the US army's fight against malaria in the
pacific theater during WW II:

[https://armyhistory.org/the-other-foe-the-u-s-armys-fight-
ag...](https://armyhistory.org/the-other-foe-the-u-s-armys-fight-against-
malaria-in-the-pacific-theater-1942-45/)

TL;DR: By spraying DDT everywhere, and coercing troops to take Atabrine (that
often had nasty side effects), they reduced malaria incidence by about 70%.
The Japanese, by contrast had little protection - nearly all Japanese soldiers
had malaria at some time.

~~~
acdha
One caution: pesticides like DDT are more effective at first, before the local
population is selected for resistance. The big anti-malaria campaigns in the
1950s tended to report resistance being a significant impediment with a
decade: [http://gladwell.com/the-mosquito-killer/](http://gladwell.com/the-
mosquito-killer/)

~~~
joecool1029
It would be curious to know whether the resistance was just to the killing
effect of the mosquito or if it still continued to repel and stop them from
biting.

One of the huge advantages of DDT over later pesticides is that it stopped
them from biting, the other ones keep them biting until they're dead.

I'm of the mindset that DDT should have remained legal as a residential
application to the house (screens, nets, walls). The quantities applied here
were much smaller than for agricultural use, and there has never been a study
that convincingly showed harm to mammals. (Even the bird egg shell thinning
theory was tenuous at best, TEL in leaded fuel could have had the same effect
in the targeted time period)

~~~
_delirium
> I'm of the mindset that DDT should have remained legal as a residential
> application to the house (screens, nets, walls).

The international anti-DDT treaty allows countries to take this route, and as
a result DDT is still legal for residential use in some countries where
malaria is endemic. The US opted for a total ban, though.

------
codysan
Is there a species as universally loathed as the mosquito?

~~~
nosianu
Bed bugs are a thousand times worse!

I can easily protect myself against mosquitoes. It is much - much! - harder to
get rid of bed bugs. The last time I had only one or two and it was a
nightmare. I spare you the details, there are plenty of anecdotes out there.
The net did not help at all. I was lucky to notice that one night when I
accidentally had the blanket reversed - the part wehre the feet were, usually,
was where my head was for that one night - I got bitten on the upper part of
my body instead of the lower one. I immediately put the entire blanket
including sheets into a plastic bag and threw it away. I _had_ actually
examined the sheet as well as the blanket very carefully and had found
nothing. No idea where exactly those tiny critters were hiding, but afterwards
I had no more bites. Seriously, with bed bugs you have to take _extreme_
measures. In comparison, all you need against mosquitoes is a net! I learned
to _like_ mosquitoes now, given that nightmarish alternative experience with
bed bugs. Mosquito bites are much more "friendly" and easier to live with too!

~~~
sunstone
Bed bugs are manageable if you know that they are very susceptible to heat.
They are very mobile at night and can travel 100 or 200 metres (as I recall).

The strategy then is divide and conquer. Choose one room and seal it off with
masking tape and then steam every little crevice you can find. Keep that room
sealed and sleep in there. Once you're not getting bitten you know that room
is fine. Then move on to the next room. Rinse and repeat.

Some older homes have just too many cracks and crevices for this process to
work. There are companies that will enclose an entire house in a big plastic
bag and then heat up the entire thing to be rid of bed bugs. In any case heat
and steam is the best weapon. I believe 50C for 24 hours is effective. Any
kind of chemical attack would be hit and miss at best.

~~~
80mph
And even after heat treatment, the histamine they poop out can remain for up
to 3 months. Stubborn little twits.

[https://gizmodo.com/bed-bugs-are-pooping-histamine-into-
our-...](https://gizmodo.com/bed-bugs-are-pooping-histamine-into-our-homes-
and-possi-1822940326)

------
kingkawn
A few years ago I decided to stop killing mosquitos. I still swat them, but my
aim now is inflict PTSD on them so that they avoid environmental triggers that
remind them of me, and all their offspring do the same. How can they learn if
we kill them?

Has it worked? Prob not, but I feel like I’m doing something new at least.

~~~
errantmind
Not sure if this is a joke. If not, they 'learn' by not surviving long enough
to pass on their genes

~~~
kingkawn
There are numerous behavioral adaptations passed on via epigenetic methylation
of the relevant genes in all species, mosquitos included.

