Speaking of mosquitoes as creatures, I don't think there is a single person who has not been tortured, and it is obvious that human beings have always been very unfriendly to mosquitoes, and they are often bitten and itchy. So why do humans deal with mosquitoes so much? Let's start with the mosquitoes themselves. Mosquitoes: mosquitoes, pests, according to statistics a total of more than 3600 species, in China has been found more than 370 kinds, the most common is also our various targets is Culex mosquitoes. It likes to live in a dark and humid environment, and the reason why we hate mosquitoes is not only because they are full of bacteria, but also because they will feel itchy after being bitten by mosquitoes, and they will have more severe skin pain and allergies. Even more frightening are the large number of diseases that mosquitoes can transmit, such as yellow fever, malaria, filariasis and so on.
The picture shows the blood sucking process of the mouthparts of mosquitoes
When they suck blood, they plunge six syringe-like mouthparts into your skin, the two outer jaws pierce and cut the flesh, and the middle two upper jaws separate the muscle tissue and provide support. Once the blood vessel is found, suck it with its upper lip while spitting out its tongue and injecting anticoagulant protein to prevent blood from clotting In these three minutes, it sucks up three times its own weight of fresh blood, leaving a strangely itchy bag on you. More deadly, it is likely that it has already planted the virus in the blood vessels. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are bitten by mosquitoes and die from infection with pathogens such as malaria parasites or dengue viruses. According to the data, there are more than 80 kinds of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, so the world has begun to kill mosquitoes.
<h1>The fight against mosquitoes that has lasted for many years </h1>
Chinese mosquito control experiments:
Aedes albopictus mosquitoes at the Shazai Island and Dadaosha test sites in Guangzhou, China, are almost extinct, using mosquitoes to kill mosquitoes, and scientists have released 200 million male mosquitoes with lost fertility to the two islands in Guangzhou, basically eliminating the mosquito populations on these two islands. The islanders were skeptical of the experiment at first, with only thirteen percent supporting the island, and although the 200 million male mosquitoes released would not bite, people still felt uncomfortable when released so much.
The experiment was not all smooth sailing, scientists first laid down 110 egg spawners and 44 mosquito traps but carried out eight months of testing, the effect is not very satisfactory, mosquitoes are very small, but mosquitoes are the main vectors of diseases such as malaria, which cause millions of deaths every year, and sterilization of mosquitoes is a way to stop them from spreading diseases.
The picture shows the mechanism of Wolbachia mosquito control
So scientists began to release more than 200 million male Asian tiger mosquitoes to The island of Shazai in Guangzhou, where dengue fever is severe, and these mosquitoes are infected with three different Wolbachia bacteria through brief exposure to gamma rays, namely wAlbA, wAlbB, and wPip, and they call this artificially established Aedes albopictus HC, and the HC mosquito has almost no ability to transmit the virus and has lost the ability to reproduce. Female mosquitoes are more attractive during the mating season, and eggs laid by females who mate with these males do not hatch.
After two years of experiments, wild mosquito colonies basically disappeared. The researchers found that some mosquitoes also live on the island, but genetic analysis shows that they originated elsewhere, most likely by means of transportation. The technology was a resounding success, with local residents' mosquito bites dropping by 96 percent, and more people supporting the technology after the experiment ended, and past suspicions disappeared.
Not only China has done experiments, but also successful experiments abroad
Google's parent company ALPHABET a life sciences company to use advanced technology and algorithms to catch the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, they decided to release 20 million male Aedes aegypti infected with Wolbachia and infertile Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the United States to release them with female mosquitoes, in order to improve mating competitiveness, researchers even tried to feed male mosquitoes with extracts of natural herbs. They do have a slight advantage over the average mosquito that eats only sugar water in terms of courtship time, number of mating and mating success rates, but unfortunately the average lifespan is less than 70 days, which is 16 days less. Because of infertility, the eggs laid are "stillborn" and cannot be hatched. And male mosquitoes do not bite, female mosquitoes will bite and infect diseases. This experiment did work well, with fewer and fewer Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. There is also australia's large-scale mosquito control experiment success of the main "credit" is the Wolbachia bacteria to eliminate mosquitoes.
<h1>Why not eliminate all mosquitoes :</h1>
The answer is that it cannot be extinguished, the extinction of mosquitoes is difficult, common mosquito repellent products to pyrethroids and DEET as the main components, by interfering with the mosquito's nervous system or olfactory perception mechanism to achieve knockdown and expulsion purposes. But at the same time, mosquitoes are also developing resistance. Therefore, it is very difficult to eliminate mosquitoes, and mosquitoes are small in size, huge in number, strong in reproduction, widely distributed, extremely adaptable, rapidly mutated, and highly resistant, and it seems impossible to exterminate it.
But humans have also made experiments, although the effect is very good, but it has not all been eliminated. And mosquitoes are not all harmful to humans, most of which are harmless to humans, especially mosquitoes living in the Canadian and Russian polar circles play an important role in the local ecological circle, because they fly in groups, so they not only pollinate polar plants, but also the main food source for migratory birds.
The picture shows mosquitoes transmitting pollen
For other regions, mosquitoes can also be food for those birds, fish or insects, so it's never a good idea to let the mosquitoes go extinct. And scientists have also found some direct ways to solve the harm of mosquitoes to humans and do not affect the ecological balance.
In 2015, a British company created a mosquito with a "self-limiting gene" that prevents their cells from functioning properly. When this defective male Aphis mosquito is released and gives birth to the next generation with the female Aphiops, the gene is passed on, and the widows with this gene usually die before they can grow into mosquitoes, and of course they cannot transmit diseases.
The picture shows the spotted mosquito
Other scientists in California have figured out ways to deal with malaria mosquitoes. Malaria mosquitoes are actually a genus of several malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that are called Malaria mosquitoes because they are parasitized by malaria parasites. So scientists changed the malaria mosquito's genes to those that kill the malaria parasite, so that even if the malaria parasite parasitizes, it will be eliminated before the malaria mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans! What's even better is that the chance of this gene being passed on to the next generation is 99.5%! This means that in the future, the world's Malaria mosquitoes may not be able to transmit malaria! Scientists believe that such technology may also be used in other mosquitoes. In addition to changing genes, some scientists have adopted the method of "attacking poison with poison"!
They let the Egyptian spotted mosquitoes be infected with Wolbachia, and found that Wolbachia prevented most of the virus from surviving in the mosquito, so even if the mosquito bites the virus carrier, the virus cannot survive in their bodies, and the mosquito will not spread the disease! Therefore, it is not necessary to exterminate mosquitoes, mosquitoes can be changed by some means.
<h1>The presence of mosquitoes must make sense:</h1>
Many people think that "existence is reasonable", since the mosquito exists, it must have its meaning of existence, everything has advantages and disadvantages, objectively judge the advantages and disadvantages brought by mosquitoes. For mosquitoes, we should not only think from the perspective of human beings, but also from the perspective of nature, of course, the most important thing is the benefit to nature, the main thing we want to say about the benefits of mosquitoes is first of all that mosquitoes have a great contribution to the environmental and ecological balance of nature.
The picture shows the widow
It can be used as a "pure natural filter" of nature, the vast majority of female mosquitoes will lay eggs in the water, and their larvae - the widows will grow in the water, using floating debris and debris in the water as food, so that many aquatic organisms will not lack oxygen, nitrogen and other deaths because of floating matter. Mosquitoes, as food for many birds and insects, allow organisms that feed on mosquitoes to survive. Mosquitoes are an indispensable food for birds when migrating, and without mosquitoes, these birds may be starved and greatly reduce their chances of survival. In the same way, mosquitoes as food for many insects, once the mosquitoes disappear, will greatly reduce the number of mosquitoes for food, birds, will destroy the ecological balance of a place.
And many years ago the farmer's worst sparrow disaster, a sparrow can eat the rations of sixty thousand people at that time every year, and therefore the sparrow was designated as one of the "four pests", so it began to kill the sparrow madly, but the good times were not long, the consequence of beating the sparrow was that the leaves on the tree were all gone, covered with ticks, and many places of trees, fruits, and crops became the world of insects, showing a miserable phenomenon, so the existence of any kind of creature has its own reason.
Not all mosquitoes bite:
Mosquitoes are not all biting viruses that we think of, mosquitoes are divided into many species, common blood-sucking Culex mosquitoes, Aedes mosquitoes, Anopheles mosquitoes, shake mosquitoes, large mosquitoes, etc., especially shake mosquitoes, but have important ecological value, and shake mosquitoes and large mosquitoes are not biting, only female mosquitoes will suck blood, the vast majority of male mosquitoes are nectar, dew for food. Then when male mosquitoes are collecting honey, of course, it will help the spread of pollen. Finally, mosquitoes serve as food for many birds and insects, allowing organisms that feed on mosquitoes to survive. Mosquitoes are an indispensable food for birds when migrating, and without mosquitoes, these birds may be starved and greatly reduce their chances of survival. In the same way, mosquitoes as food for many insects, once the mosquitoes disappear, will greatly reduce the number of mosquitoes for food, birds, will destroy the ecological balance of a place.