Hippies Frightened of NextGen Mosquito Control
If you affix the GMO description to anything, hippies will instantly oppose it because they don’t understand science. In the latest case of Genetic Modified Organisms that will benefit mankind, and strongly opposed by the anti-science crowd, scientists want to eradicate painful and deadly diseases that mankind gets when bitten by mosquitoes. Their plan is to introduce specially made male mosquitoes in Key West that will cause the females to have larvae that die. It has been tried successfully in the Cayman Islands and Brazil, reducing the mosquito population up to 96%. But of course the hippies would rather have people die than use GMO anything.
From the AP here:
Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases.
“This is essentially using a mosquito as a drug to cure disease,” said Michael Doyle, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which is waiting to hear if the Food and Drug Administration will allow the experiment.
Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 people signed a Change.org petition against the experiment.
“I think the science is fine, they definitely can kill mosquitoes, but the GMO issue still sticks as something of a thorny issue for the general public,” said Phil Lounibos, who studies mosquito control at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory.
There are no vaccines or cures for dengue, known as “break-bone fever,” or chikungunya, so painful it causes contortions. U.S. cases remain rare.
Insecticides are sprayed year-round in the Keys‘ charming and crowded neighborhoods. But Aedes aegypti, whose biting females spread these diseases, have evolved to resist four of the six insecticides used to kill them.
Oxitec’s 2012 experiment in the Cayman Islands, where 3.3 million modified mosquitoes were released over six months, suppressing 96 percent of the targeted bugs. Oxitec says a later test in Brazil also was successful, and both countries now want larger-scale projects.
I live in the Keys about a month out of the year. Mosquito control is a huge deal. The city is allowed by law to enter any premises to check for standing water, and will write tickets if it finds any. The spraying for eradication doesn’t work, and it throws chemicals into the air. Traps can be effective, but not everyone uses them, and they run on propane, which is costly. This plan sounds like a good one.
