Scientists genetically engineer a lethal mosquito STD to combat malaria

Not if we build a wall, how high can mosquitoes fly?

Because diseases have a tendency to recombine and jump hosts - it could become a human plague- similar to malaria..

This is by far the safer way to do these things. You never know what's going to happen when you Geneer a completely new organism and then release it into the wild.

Screwworms have actually broken through the Darrien Gap and hopes of recontaining them are slim.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/05/screwwor...

Interesting thought - ARE mosquitoes essential? What actually do they do in the food chain? Simply provide food/biomass for frogs/fish/etc?

> You can use them just about anywhere that collects water—bird baths, fish ponds, etc.–because BTi is totally non-toxic to other wildlife. The only caveat here is that you don't want to use mosquito dunks in water that'll be ingested or touched by humans, so avoid using it in pools.

It's totally safe! Except for two species: mosquitos and humans. Right. At least the label [1] doesn't make any claims about it being safe for wildlife. It just says it's not safe for humans (and mosquitos.)

[1] https://www.domyown.com/images/323-2.jpg

I upvoted you, and I think that was quite interesting.

Except for all the living things that eat mosquitos, and which in turn get eaten by other things, or eat other pests besides mosquitos

I'm sure it's controversial, but I think general concern for the environment would increase if we killed off human-biting mosquitos. I and lots of other people avoid going outside for large parts of the year due to mosquitos. Walks, if at all, are brisk. No eating outside, no hanging out in parks, exercise at a gym, run to your car, etc. It's hard to care about the environment when you're never in it.

I guess my stance is (maybe) the benefits of getting rid of human-biting mosquitos could outweigh the negatives of the effect it'd have on ecology.

> Not that much [1].

Uhh, I read the paper and it's like here is evidence it would be a problem, anyway since there isn't any convincing evidence that it would be a problem let's just go ahead.

> “Mosquitoes are delectable things to eat and they’re easy to catch,” says aquatic entomologist Richard Merritt, at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In the absence of their larvae, hundreds of species of fish would have to change their diet to survive. “This may sound simple, but traits such as feeding behaviour are deeply imprinted, genetically, in those fish,” says Harrison. The mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), for example, is a specialized predator — so effective at killing mosquitoes that it is stocked in rice fields and swimming pools as pest control — that could go extinct. And the loss of these or other fish could have major effects up and down the food chain. Many species of insect, spider, salamander, lizard and frog would also lose a primary food source. In one study published last month, researchers tracked insect-eating house martins at a park in Camargue, France, after the area was sprayed with a microbial mosquito-control agent1 . They found that the birds produced on average two chicks per nest after spraying, compared with three for birds at control sites. Most mosquito-eating birds would probably switch to other insects that, post-mosquitoes, might emerge in large numbers to take their place. Other insectivores might not miss them at all: bats feed mostly on moths, and less than 2% of their gut content is mosquitoes. “If you’re expending energy,” says medical entomologist Janet McAllister of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, “are you going to eat the 22-ounce filet-mignon moth or the 6-ounce hamburger mosquito?” With many options on the menu, it seems that most insecteaters would not go hungry in a mosquito-free world. There is not enough evidence of ecosystem disruption here to give the eradicators pause for thought.

This particular form of mosquito control seems to be untargeted and will affect all species. Which also makes it that much more likely that it will be evolved around (but that could still be a win, if Aedes Aegypti got replaced with a fungus resistant species).