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Text: Dreams of Nine Songs
Singing the night of sleep
preface
Mosquitoes are humanity's worst enemy, and we complain that they squeak, bite us, and also spread diseases, but mosquitoes have been around as a species for 300 million years.
Now, scientists are trying to coexist peacefully with mosquitoes and control the spread of disease by altering their bacterial environment, and the mosquito factory in Huangpu, Guangzhou, is one such attempt to reduce the harm of mosquito-borne viruses.
Why mosquitoes are a nuisance
The presence of mosquitoes, a nuisance flying insect that feeds on blood through its stinging mouthparts, is a source of deep distress for many people.
There are more than 3,600 species of mosquitoes in the world, and more than 370 species are found in China alone, and they are extremely reproductive, and they exist all year round, especially in summer, when mosquitoes are particularly numerous.
The mosquito's mouthparts are like a knife that can easily cut through a person's skin, first tearing the skin with two serrated tubes, then piercing the capillaries under the skin with two other tubes, and finally spitting into a saliva containing an anesthetic substance, which can temporarily make the bitten person unconscious and not feel pain.
After the saliva has taken effect, the mosquito will insert a straw in the middle to suck blood from the blood vessels, and the whole bite process seems to be exquisite, but the bag left behind afterwards is extremely itchy, and it is easy to get infected after scratching.
In order to avoid mosquito bites, some people can only choose to wear thick clothes, even if the weather is hot, they endure sweating, and some people will burn a large number of mosquito coils in their rooms in order to drive away mosquitoes, and as a result, they inhale too many harmful gases and cause poisoning, and they are sent to the hospital.
Mosquitoes not only harass people during the day, but also make people unable to sleep at night, they make irritating buzzing sounds, constantly ringing in the ears, seriously affecting the quality of sleep, some people have been disturbed by mosquitoes all night long, and they have injured themselves when they killed mosquitoes in a fit of anger.
Most worryingly, mosquitoes are the source of many deadly diseases, such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, etc., and mosquitoes can spread the virus through the blood by sucking the blood of a person or animal with the virus and biting another healthy human body.
According to statistics, more than 700 million people in the world are infected with various mosquito-borne diseases every year, which causes 700,000 deaths, and mosquitoes are found in almost any region, and only Antarctica is a mosquito-free place in the world.
Since mosquitoes can fly and are very capable of flying, they can fly to an altitude of 300 meters, they can use air currents to help fly to the top of tall buildings, in addition, they can also lay eggs in any place where there is standing water, and it only takes 1 week to hatch into mosquitoes, on the other hand, humans, even if they live in a 30-story building, they cannot completely avoid mosquito harassment.
It not only brings physical harm to people, but also causes serious losses to economic and social development, the burden of disease caused by malaria and other diseases has lost a lot of labor resources in developing countries, in order to eradicate mosquitoes, countries have invested heavily in mosquito prevention, insecticide and other work, and tourism has also been affected to varying degrees due to mosquito problems.
Since mosquitoes have survived on the earth for hundreds of millions of years, they have a strong ability to adapt and can reproduce in large numbers in various environments, and the various methods used by humans to eliminate mosquitoes, such as insecticide spraying, warm lamp lure, etc., have very limited control over mosquito populations.
Some regions have even tried to reduce mosquito populations by releasing genetically modified mosquitoes, but so far, no human method has been able to completely eradicate mosquitoes.
Therefore, mosquitoes have a large number, blood sucking pain, affect rest, spread diseases, difficult to prevent and control, and are very destructive, which is why it is spurned by humans, but it cannot be easily eliminated by human power alone, because it has survived on the earth for hundreds of millions of years, and it is a creature with strong vitality and adaptability, no matter how humans fight, mosquitoes are likely to continue to exist.
The largest mosquito factory in China
A mosquito research center in Guangzhou is using advanced biotechnology to help prevent infectious diseases, and the China Mosquito Research Center, a nonprofit research institute specializing in mosquitoes, aims to develop safe and effective new mosquito control technologies to stop the transmission of infectious diseases.
The research center is staffed by experts in molecular biology, genetics, entomology, and many other fields, and they are developing several innovative technologies, such as the use of microorganisms such as Wolbachia, to sterilize mosquitoes, which are very environmentally friendly and do not pollute the environment.
In the laboratory, the researchers use advanced equipment to observe, cultivate and genetically modify mosquitoes, they will extract specific strains, and then micro-inject them into mosquito eggs, so that mosquitoes carry this strain, this strain can inhibit the fertility of female mosquitoes, this technology has been proven many times, and it can sterilize 100% of mosquito offspring.
In addition to this, researchers have also developed a variety of new mosquito control technologies, such as regulating mosquitoes' gene expression, which can make them insensitive to human odors, thereby reducing human bites, and they are also investigating the use of gene editing technology to directly modify mosquito genomes so that they cannot transmit disease pathogens.
In order to better understand the physiological mechanism of mosquitoes, the research center has established a world-class mosquito specimen bank, which collects hundreds of mosquito samples from all over the world, and researchers can observe and analyze them for a long time.
In addition to conducting research projects, the research center also works closely with the Global Mosquito Control Network, where it regularly exchanges ideas and shares research results with peer experts from countries such as the United States and Brazil.
Some modified "sterilized mosquitoes" have also been sent to Africa and other epidemic areas to assist in local disease prevention and control pilots, and the Future Research Center plans to cooperate with more developing countries to apply mosquito control technologies to a wider region.
In addition to scientific research, the research center also holds an open day to popularize the knowledge of mosquito prevention and control, the staff will explain the living habits of mosquitoes and the mechanism of infectious diseases to visitors in an easy-to-understand way, and they also use the virtual simulation system to let the public experience the fun of research work, these popular science activities play an important role in enhancing public health awareness.
It can be said that the China Mosquito Research Center has made great contributions to the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the mainland, and it has made full use of the power of modern biotechnology to develop a more superior mosquito control program, which is both environmentally friendly and efficient, and its work is of great significance to protecting people's health.
How to use mosquitoes to get rid of mosquitoes
During the two-year experiment, the number of wild mosquitoes on the experimental island dropped by more than 90% compared to the control island, and the monitoring data also showed that the mosquito bite rate dropped significantly by more than 95%, and the residents of the island were very satisfied with the response.
In view of the good results of the preliminary experiment, the researchers further optimized the technology and identified a highly effective Wolbachia strain, which can achieve 100% mosquito sterilization by using microembryo injection technology.
Specifically, they inject the bacteria into the eggs before they hatch, and after the eggs hatch into larvae, the workers carefully distinguish between male and female mosquitoes, which requires a lot of experience because the mosquitoes of both sexes are very similar in appearance.
When they are able to distinguish correctly, they will leave behind the male mosquito larvae and destroy all the female larvae, because only the female mosquito will bite humans, while the male mosquitoes live by sucking nectar and do not harm humans.
These infected males are considered "beneficial mosquitoes" and mate with females in the wild, infecting them with Wolbachia and preventing them from reproducing offspring, which can control mosquito populations without harming humans.
In order to breed these "beneficial little mosquitoes" on a large scale, researchers have developed a special feeding system that can reproduce treated male mosquitoes in large numbers, and they will regularly release millions of sterilized male mosquitoes every week to effectively inhibit the rapid reproduction of mosquitoes in the wild.
The results of this mosquito control approach have been remarkable, with studies showing that the number of mosquitoes in the pilot area has been reduced by more than 90 percent, and the mosquito bite rate has also been reduced by more than 95 percent, and residents are very satisfied with this.
Through microbial screening, the researchers found a more efficient Wolbachia strain, and using microembryo injection technology, they were able to achieve 100% mosquito sterilization, which provided the possibility of further control of mosquito populations.
The technology has indeed sparked some controversy, with some fears that a massive reduction in mosquitoes would cause damage to ecosystems, as mosquitoes play multiple roles in nature as pollinators, waste decomposers, and food sources for other animals.
However, experts who support the technology believe that the disease doom of mosquitoes far outweighs their ecological effects, with nearly a million people potentially dying from diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, and that curbing mosquito-borne infections is urgent.
Rather than completely eradicating mosquitoes and causing irreversible effects on the ecosystem, it is better to only make mosquitoes unable to reproduce, which will not harm the ecological balance and effectively control the number of mosquitoes, after all, the multiple functions of mosquitoes in the ecosystem can also be replaced by other species, but the harm of mosquito-borne diseases is irreplaceable.
epilogue
The question of whether mosquitoes should become extinct has been debated, but first and foremost we must take a scientific approach, and perhaps only with the concerted efforts of scientists, factory managers and the public can we find a sustainable solution that can control the spread of the disease and protect the environment.