Review
Whenever summer comes, the insects and mosquitoes that everyone hates the most appear.
They appear densely in life, in front of the window, in the corners, and in the blind spots that cannot be seen; as long as you slack off a little, in a few moments there will be a few more large bags on your body, which makes people itch unbearably.
Mosquitoes all over the world, it is reasonable to say that human hatred for mosquitoes should be the same, but the United States is maverick, according to insiders, the National Academy of Sciences is planning to put 1 billion mosquitoes into nature, the future will put 2 billion, look at this posture, the United States is planning to set off a "mosquito war" ah.
Male mosquitoes and female mosquitoes
Do you know? Although male and female mosquitoes look basically the same in appearance in the insect world, their eating habits are very different.
Female mosquitoes are the biggest enemies of human beings, they like mammalian blood the most, and if we are not careful, we will bite a few bags on our arms and thighs, which is really annoying.
But the male mosquitoes are different, the male mosquitoes follow a strict vegetarianism, preferring to suck nectar, dew, and some sweet resins over blood.
These good habits are not inherited by female mosquitoes, which makes our hearts ache, otherwise we will no longer have the trouble of mosquito bites in the summer.
In fact, you don't have to say that female mosquitoes are the same as male mosquitoes at the beginning, do not suck human blood, only feed on nectar and other plant essences, but after mating with male mosquitoes, female mosquitoes must change their eating habits.
Because throughout the egg laying process, female mosquitoes can not get enough protein from nectar and juice, so that the eggs can not grow. And it just so happens that the blood of mammals is full of amino acids and proteins, and this prenatal supplement is coming soon! In order for small mosquitoes to develop rapidly, female mosquitoes must feed on human blood to obtain sufficient energy.
Some friends may wonder, since blood is the best tonic for mosquitoes, why don't male mosquitoes feed on blood like female mosquitoes?
First of all, male mosquitoes do not need to reproduce, the energy collected from resin and nectar is enough for them to live; secondly, male mosquitoes have no blood-sucking mouth organs in the process of evolution, even if they lie on humans, they cannot pierce human skin.
But female mosquitoes are different, female mosquitoes have a very special set of mouthparts, the whole is slender and covered with jagged needles.
Female mosquitoes will continue to explore the weakest part of the skin before sucking blood, and inject saliva containing anticoagulant compounds into the skin after piercing with an oral organ; these saliva will also paralyze the human epidermal nerves, and it is generally the mosquitoes that suck enough that we find that the paralytic effect of saliva has disappeared.
Many people have noticed that although we have exhausted our means of repelling mosquitoes in the summer, we have killed thousands of mosquitoes; but whenever the summer of the following year comes, the mosquitoes stick out their heads like nascent weeds, and the dense density cannot be killed.
This is related to its strong reproductive ability.
In general, the total number of eggs laid by each female mosquito in her lifetime is about 1000-3000, and even if the survival rate of larvae in harsh environments is very low, the number of mosquitoes that survive is still astronomical.
Genetically modified mosquito control technology
Is there a way to completely eliminate mosquitoes so that they can no longer lay eggs? There really is!
The National Academy of Sciences is already doing these things, and the mainstream method is to release genetically modified mosquitoes. The so-called genetically modified mosquitoes are genetically modified by technicians to make the pregnant genes carried by male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes defective.
When genetically modified mosquitoes mate with other female mosquitoes, these defects flow into the eggs' cells with DNA; according to the scientists' experiments, these mosquitoes carrying genetic defects are not very large.
In a few years, the more genetically defective larvae in nature, the higher the mortality rate of mosquitoes, which eventually leads to their cessation of reproduction, and mosquitoes completely disappear into the long river of human history.
As for these male mosquitoes, because male mosquitoes do not need to feed on blood, they have little impact on human life, even if they invest 1 billion or 2 billion genetically modified mosquitoes into nature, it will not cause a difficult situation, at least in theory.
However, the behavior of the National Academy of Sciences has been unanimously criticized by society, although its original intention of investing in genetically modified mosquitoes is good, but it is difficult not to doubt whether such a large-scale release of mosquitoes will cause actual adverse effects.
If nothing else, even if genetically modified mosquitoes can really leave genetic defects in female mosquitoes, who can guarantee that female mosquitoes that have evolved after 2-3 generations will not overcome this defect?
Creatures in nature evolve to survive when they encounter harsh environments, allowing the race to survive, and mosquitoes also possess this ability.
Fear of genetically modified mosquitoes not only failed to reduce the efficiency of female mosquitoes in laying eggs, but this defective gene was also combined by female mosquitoes to give birth to a super mosquito. Aren't there always people who complain that there are no mosquitoes in winter, and super mosquitoes may be able to appear in winter.
Although the above is only a hypothesis, we must admit that such a hypothesis does exist.
If super mosquitoes are really created, the United States can't control them; traditional mosquitoes can pose a threat to human life by carrying viruses, super mosquitoes may have viruses themselves, when there are 1 billion, 2 billion super mosquitoes in the sky, how should humans respond?
This desperate way of delivery is very risky and naturally impossible to be accepted by society.
epilogue
From the perspective of eliminating mosquitoes, the genetically modified mosquito control method can indeed play a certain effect, but at the same time, we must still do a good job of risk management and control, avoid the potential of mosquitoes to erupt into evolution in a desperate situation, and give birth to super species.
In the next two years or so, the United States will release 2 billion genetically modified mosquitoes into Florida, and then we will be able to see the results of the plan.