I think but am not sure that this has already been tried using bio-engineering but not in the way you or I would think it would be. I think they tried to genetically engineer the female mosquito to not emit pheromones or maybe the male or both. The mosquito is a resilient species that evolves rapidly. In some places in the US they use bio-engineered soy beans that are Roundup proof (Roundup is an all encompassing herbicide) that at first killed off all of the weeds and left the soy beans alone but the weeds started evolving to be Roundup resistant. It is a vicious circle that never ends. : )
Only the females bite in order to obtain blood to feed the developing eggs. There are experiments in progress to introduce genetic modifications into wild populations so that the vast majority of mosquitoes hatched are male.
This would reduce both the overall size of the population and the number of biting mosquitoes.
As with all things in nature, this will not be without consequences as many predators feed on mosquitoes and their larvae - fish, birds, spiders etc. There will inevitably be an imbalance in the ecosystem but it is difficult to predict exactly what will happen. Expect the extinction or drastic reduction of a number of mosquito-dependant species, some of which humans may in turn rely on.
For example, if at certain times of the year, birds feed their young on mosquitoes then obviously the bird population will be reduced. At other times of the year these same birds may eat insect pests from crops - so a reduction in mosquitoes causes a reduction in birds which in turn causes a reduction in crop yield - and suddenly there are people starving to death rather than dying or malaria.
Brilliant idea. So all we need to do is, first, round up EVERY SINGLE MOSQUITO IN EXISTENCE (including that one that's currently breeding at the bottom of a giant cave in an unexplored region of Paupa New Guinea - oh, and also that one lurking in an empty coffee can somewhere in New Delhi - and ALL OF THE OTHER ONES), then, instead of just killing them and being done with it, we have to use incredibly difficult and expensive molecular biology techniques - which, let's remember, we haven't figure out yet - to, what, make them have babies that don't bite? And then those babies, when they grow up, will be unable to get the nutrition they need to feed their own eggs, and die.
Super plan, Jimbo. Just stellar. Let us know when you've got every single mosquito in - oh, let's give you an easy place to start - the Everglades all rounded up and ready to go, and we'll hop right on that.
Females need blood to develop fertile eggs, the male mosquitoes feed on the nectar of flowers (so do the females), and if we did this, the female mosquitoes would not be able to lay eggs, and all of the mosquitoes would be gone eventually, humans are not the center of the universe or this planet, we are not special, we are just another species.
Don't try saying "mosquitoes are pointless" because they aren't, they may be annoying but not pointless, there are many organisms, mainly bats that rely on them greatly for food, and many other aquatic organisms also rely on them for food.
We shouldn't just kill off everything that doesn't benefit humans, humans may be the only organism that is actually useless, we do nothing except the destroy the environment.
So how do you propose the mosquitoes eat if they don't bite?
Then there's the possibility of unintended consequences. What if there's some sort of benefit we aren't aware of regarding the mosquitoes biting animals?
Our current biosphere is the result of billions of years of evolution. Making changes to it willy-nilly all of a sudden could have devastating consequences.
They have done this:
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-med...
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info...
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v47...
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140610...
They have to catch them first....
why cant scientists just genetically modify mosquitoes to not bite people. wouldnt this prevent malaria and stuff?
