More than 720,000 people die every year from the "mouth" of mosquitoes, can existing technology eliminate mosquitoes?

Mosquitoes are really annoying, after being bitten by it, the pain and itching are not counted, this little thing also infects various diseases.

According to WHO, mosquitoes are the deadliest of all pests, with more than 200 million people suffering from malaria from mosquito bites worldwide each year, and about 725,000 people die from mosquitoes " under the mouth" each year.

1

Now technology

Can mosquitoes be eliminated?

So, at the current level of scientific and technological development, can mosquitoes be completely eliminated?

(1) Someone really did it!

In 2020, the genetically modified mosquitoes developed by Oxford Insect Technology in the United Kingdom were licensed for production and wild release in Florida, USA. At that time, it was planned to release 750 million Aedes mosquitoes, and over a two-year period, these genetically modified mosquitoes were used to make local mosquitoes "cut off their children".

In April 2021, the company placed several boxes of mosquito eggs at six locations on The U.S. islands of Kacho, Ram rhodes and Waka. Over the next 12 weeks, 12,000 male mosquitoes are expected to fly out of the box. This is the first time a genetically modified mosquito has been stocked in the United States. According to the plan, nearly 20 million more mosquitoes will be released later that year for a second trial.

What is the follow-up situation, there are few media reports.

(2) So, how effective is this technique?

Oxford Insect Technologies has previously stocked modified Aedes mosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama and Malaysia. According to the company's report, the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in these places has decreased by at least 90%.

(3) What is the anti-mosquito principle of this technology?

Simply put, researchers change the genome of mosquitoes to produce genetically modified mosquitoes. The mosquito is then fed tetracycline, and the male mosquitoes are then picked out and released into the wild. This genetically modified male mosquito mates with wild female mosquitoes and gives birth to mosquitoes with the same genes. In the absence of tetracycline in the wild, the offspring of genetically modified mosquitoes, whether male or female, cannot survive, thus achieving the initial goal of mosquito control.

As an aside, mainland scientists are also exploring another way to kill mosquitoes, and Professor Xi Zhiyong's team at Sun Yat-sen University is exploring ways to transfer certain microorganisms, such as certain bacteria, into mosquitoes and sterilize their offspring. This technique can also be referred to as cell (embryo) transfection. Their research yielded some results and was published in the journals Science and Nature, respectively.

2

Exterminate mosquitoes

Will it upset the ecological balance?

From a human standpoint, the extinction of mosquitoes is certainly well reasoned.

However, to know that mosquitoes have lived on earth for 100 million years, older than humans, as a link in the biological chain, extinction will destroy the ecology?

According to existing research, the above-mentioned genetically modified technologies do not affect other insect races horizontally. Even if a frog or bat eats a genetically modified mosquito, it will not be poisoned, and it will not affect their fertility.

However, when Oxford Insect Technology released genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, it also attracted a lot of opposition, believing that the release of genetically modified mosquitoes would pose unnecessary risks to Florida residents, the local environment and endangered species, especially in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

But a scientist at the company revealed that "they have released 1 billion genetically modified mosquitoes into the wild in the past few years, and there is no potential risk to the environment and humans." ”

In this regard, WHO's attitude is to encourage attempts to use genetically modified mosquitoes to kill mosquitoes, but also to conduct more risk assessments.

3

Have there been fewer mosquitoes this year?

Expert: It's too hot to hide

Speaking of nasty mosquitoes, some people feel that "this year's mosquitoes seem to have become less", which has resonated with many people, and this matter has also been on the hot search.

Could it be that this year's mosquitoes were scared away after they knew about human mosquito control techniques? This is of course a joke.

However, according to the monitoring results:

In July this year, the mosquito density in Changsha, Hunan Province, fell by 28.7% compared with the same period last year, and fell by 36.8% year-on-year in the first half of August.

In the first half of this year, the density of mosquitoes in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, increased to a certain extent compared with 2021. But from the perspective of the last 5 years, the overall density has declined.

Why is this so, expert analysis: for mosquitoes, the most suitable temperature is 20 ~ 30 ° C, below 10 ° C or higher than 35 ° C, mosquitoes are basically not very active. "Most of them are hidden, and a few will freeze to death or die of heat." It just hides, and we feel like it's less. ”

4

It is the female mosquito that sucks your blood

Male mosquitoes "vegetarian"

As the weather cooled, just as the mosquitoes were drowsy and ready to spend the winter, they would never have thought that someone had "sharpened their knives".

In other words, if one day, there really are no mosquitoes in this world? Will anyone miss it?

Finally, Mo Hagn would like to share a few cold knowledge about mosquitoes:

• The country in the world that does not have mosquitoes is Iceland. A continent completely free of mosquitoes is Antarctica.
• At present, there are more than 3500 species of named mosquitoes, of which only one or two hundred species can bite (bite) people.
• Mosquitoes also have "anniversaries"! It is August 20 of each year.
• The blood suckers are female mosquitoes, and the male mosquitoes are vegetarian (sucking plant juices).
• Each bite of a mosquito sucks about one-fifth of a milliliter of blood.

Resources:

1. Reply to Recommendation No. 5749 of the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress (National Health Commission)

http://www.nhc.gov.cn/wjw/jiany/202209/4b61a198f9324efa9a590e1b606d2172.shtml

2. World Mosquito Day: How much do you know about mosquito-borne infectious diseases? (Science and Technology Daily< Li Liyun, Yi Xiaofeng, Chen Qiuju, Zeng Chen zhen>)

http://www.stdaily.com/index/kejixinwen/202208/0ce9c6f2830744f1bbde1682eeed90fd.shtml

3. Why are mosquitoes "operating" less? It turned out that the temperature was too high (Changsha Evening News)

http://www.hn.xinhuanet.com/2022-08/29/c_1128956004.htm

4. Do you really know about mosquitoes? (Xinhuanet)

http://paper.dzwww.com/ncdz/content/20210610/Articel04003MT.htm

5. Heritable "self-destructing" genes US media: modified mosquitoes are released in the United States for the first time (reference news)

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1699188200090550652&wfr=spider&for=pc

6. Humans have finally found a killer weapon against mosquitoes for "genocide"! (Beijing Daily)

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1677884286727311614&wfr=spider&for=pc

7. There seem to be fewer mosquitoes this year? Expert: The temperature is too high, hiding

https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1739455047009901657&wfr=spider&for=pc