Inside the Plan to Release Life-Saving Mosquitoes | WIRED

The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is turning towards a novel tool to combat harmful insecticide-resistant mosquitoes like the Aedes aegypti. What are they doing exactly? They're releasing millions of genetically modified male mosquitoes engineered to reduce the population of Aedes aegypti. How exactly does this work? We'll break it down.
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[@morpheuslordofoneiroi3293]

I remember hearing that the Mosquito's Digestive System actually breaks down the HIV/AIDS, which is why it doesn't spread whenever they feed between people. Don't know if that was true or not, but this reminded me of that.

[@astrovation3281]

Sadly not all the HIV / AIDS is in the digestive system

[@josephbanks1691]

so they could take a person with AIDS... run it through a filter using mosquito digestive fluids and pump it back in and AIDS ends? I think i may disagree, but i am open to hear your sources. This could be a breakthrough.

[@burt591]

@@astrovation3281 So mosquitoes can transmit HIV?

[@alberthadonlyone]

Mosquitos don't actually inject blood, they only inject saliva. This means they can only spread what they can get infected with. Since they can't be infected with HIV, they can't spread it.

[@jellybeanwithwings]

Usually if the vector isn't conducive the virus breaks down naturally :) mosquitoes aren't suitable vectors hence the virus starts breaking down.

[@leonardjohnjumadiao3511]

Do this everywhere on earth!!

[@MagicSwagget12]

An incredible effort coming to fruition. It'll be very interesting to see the results going forward.

[@josephbanks1691]

probably a plague on both your houses... with a dramatic death.

[@vickyn8162]

Their absence will have an effect on the natural ecosystems. Each animal insect and plant play a role in the natural ecosystem . Well only see the effects of this so called “experiment” in the long run.

[@janetf23]

I still remember actually clapping my hands when I first heard the news story of the launch in Brazil👏

[@mrsammyg3122]

you'd probably clap for atomic bomb dropping over hiroshima and nagasaki you mentally ill freak

[@KimberlyGreen]

Summary: Mosquito genocide thru genetic modification. Seems like we should try to engineer an additional advantage in the males, such as better flight ability or something else, so they are more attractive than the unmodified ones. That would give them a breeding advantage and raise the chance of the control effort's success.

[@astrovation3281]

Editing disadvantages in reproduction is easier to make then improving flight abilities (For example), might cause some misformations that we don't want to risk.

[@infinitemonkey917]

I wonder if eventually the fertile males that do breed will produce super studs that can out compete the modified ones. 5 % is enough to take a hard evolutionary turn.

[@The.Half.Blood.Prince]

Karen... Is that you?

[@xn4pl]

They don't really need comparative advantage since their male offspring is surviving and continue to carry this gene so population would become more and more male and shrink pretty fast. I don't believe that this will eradicate these species entirely, but population will drastically shrink and will have to wait a lot of generations to overcome this adversity, so the problems caused by them as a disease vector would become almost nonexistent.

[@emilyyhill9923]

I don’t know how

[@gerharddamm5933]

Can we get an update? They’ve been talking about eradicating these pests for years now

[@liquidrengar7352]

We have this in Singapore!

[@khalilahd.]

I learned about this in college. It’s actually really quite brilliant 👏🏽

[@vincentkc48]

It’s actually pretty terrifying! First it’s insects, then animals, including us. Nothing is natural. 😂

[@houseplant1016]

@@vincentkc48 There is a big difference between an insect and a human...

[@thechicken1477]

@@vincentkc48 quickly grab your tinfoil hat

[@suzque63]

@@houseplant1016 You obviously need to learn about genetically modified organisms and how A transference between a genetically modified mosquito and a human can actually break down your DNA and make you deathly ill. They already have genetically modified organisms in our food which means a lot of our food contains DNA.... All you have to do is take a minute and read and maybe learn something

[@suzque63]

@@vincentkc48 I wear my tin foil hat proudly.... These people commenting obviously have zero clue as to what this all means

[@karmapie8606]

getting rid of female mosquitoes in india would honestly be a blessing coz in India there are soo many mosquitoes and u can get chickengunya (pls correct me if im wrong) too. There was an outbreak of this disease actually so i rly hope that the population of mosquitoes decreases soon. :(

[@scofah]

The background music and sound effects are too loud.

[@xdemgeo3581]

We need this in the Philippines

[@gus473]

And in the Midwest USA and Canada! 👍🏼😬✌🏼

[@i_sekai]

No one need mosquitos therefore everyone needs this :)

[@tet8236]

we need to improve waste management first, protection of wildlife as mosquitoes have natural predators that controls their population. As much as this idea is incredible, the Philippines is not ready for this.

[@mrsammyg3122]

we need this in every pro-gmo advocates' houses

[@rendnx]

as a person who can go out in shorts and get a mosquito bite on my leg after just closing my door, please just plague all mosquitos.

[@v4led]

We need a Wired autocomplete interview with Gaten Matarazzo and Joe Keery again!!!

[@darcyrosewilson]

Fast forward after they released all these mosquitos we have malaria cases in Florida and Texas

[@djm5699]

I saw a show some months ago that said the genetically modified mozzies were going to be released in Australia this year.

[@DeeTheBomb]

I have those electric squatters in my car so whenever I see a group of bugs flying in an area i just run through it

[@cyrusstanola3929]

This is basically the plot of Jurassic World Dominion but with locusts

[@peter-peter5929]

Couldn't we throw in millions of dragonflies for good measure? At least dump dragonfly larvae in our canals throughout the state?

[@astrovation3281]

The possibilities are endless! The incredible amounts of (human) lives that could be saved, future diseases that can be prevented and the fact that no one is even dependent on mosquitoes means no one will miss them.

[@Widdekuu91]

What about birds and other animals that eat them?

[@astrovation3281]

@@Widdekuu91 If we have the "few" species that make humans sick go extinct there will be no problem as most mosquito's don't. They would just fill in the places of extinct "human" mosquito's without killing us

[@dhoygyot]

@@Widdekuu91 they have other meals, one food wont hurt

[@thesecrettogettinganything9249]

We have to eradicate humans, not to save lives!!! What's wrong with you? Covid-19 is not enough and now we have GMO mosquitoes... we need a new virus, a new plandemia.

[@zion3335]

@@Widdekuu91 its an invasive species which needs huge amounts of insecticides to be sprayed , believe me all the birds and bees will thank us

[@JK-Jasmine]

Can we do the same to flies as well?

[@charlesmrader]

I live on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. As a public spirited person, I sometimes volunteer to help uproot invasive species of plants. I have never ever encountered anyone expressing the fear that I might be setting up some unintended consequence. Almost every other day, I see editorials urging people to kill spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula, a rather colorful but invasive insect. I see nobody urging us to step back and give the bug a chance because we don't know what damage we might do by exterminating it. There's a simple explanation for the difference. Nobody has proposed getting rid of spotted lanternfly by using genetic modification. For whatever reason, any use of genetic modification makes some people abandon thought and turn to fright.

[@iasminp41]

This has been used for some years already here in my city, I just don't know the difference between the modified one and the normal one so I kill both

[@Sara3346]

If it's a male it will have very big fluffy feelers on it's head, if it's biting you anyway it's not a male.

[@charlesmrader]

If you watch the video, you will see that only male mosquitoes are being released.If you see any mosquito and you can kill it, do that. But you aren't likely to spot a male because they aren't looking for you.

[@toriancromar]

Ingenious

[@hollyfulk8275]

What about the fish that eat the larvae and mosquitoes?

[@melissasullivan1658]

I’m in research and this idea still freaks me out. I’d want to see the long term model about how the rest of the animal kingdom could be effected. Mosquito larvae is the food for many species, and I worry reducing the gene population would lead to more vulnerabilities for these animal species. 😕 (That said, as a gardener I absolutely love fighting pests with pests vs chemicals. So, good job guys.)

[@astrovation3281]

It's a good food source, but they aren't dependent, maybe some bugs will die because they weren't able to find food where mosquito larva's would've been, but at the same time just "removing" all mosquito's leaves place for many other bugs to take their place, bugs that don't kill 30% of the human population.

[@neontetraploid2026]

They're doing this to ONE non native species of mosquito. The ecosystem evolved without Aedes aegypti. It'll be fine without them

[@infinitemonkey917]

@@neontetraploid2026 Yea, but some creatures have adapted to them being here. I think it's an awesome project but releasing a gmo can have unintended consequences. I guess we'll see if it's better than pesticides.

[@Kreenick]

Affected*

[@josephbanks1691]

as a gardener you should know you pull 1 weed 3 pop up in its place. I do not really believe we know as much as we think we do. Genetics is like beyond us. we can record it, and log it, but understanding not even close. Genetics is a big picture game. People now are short term, this is the problem, this will fix it. There is no long term model. Basically they roll the dice for us and we get to live with it. Bright side is everyone else is in same boat.

[@LuckyW23]

Now we have malaria outbreaks in Florida way to go!

[@RenoReborn]

Could we do this to Cane Toads and other invasive species?

[@sheepish2159]

Vertebrates are much more complex. Such modifications would be next to impossible. In something as simple as a mosquito I'm sure a single gene is all it takes.

[@rdg585]

I'm thinking of mosquito burgers. Or at least entrap them and then use them as fertilizers.

[@kanisohana]

I live in Hawaii. Can I buy some of those genetically modified mosquito eggs? I’ll take a few million!

[@mrsammyg3122]

i'd buy them and let out them out all over israel

[@donchan1706]

we need this mutant mosquitoes in the philippines.. denque are real problems here..

[@kungisans]

Genophage?

[@Phlegethon]

Yes get rid of mosquitos asap it doesn’t matter the risks the risks of not doing it is bad

[@thegameranch5935]

Bruh

[@LegosAreFood]

I hate mosquitoes!! So i followed this experiment, when they were worried about the effects on the diet of the ecosystem And really i dont care. I hate them. I want to know if these genetically modified mosquitoes can somehow make it to South America if only released in florida?

[@airophobia3155]

yay!

[@tdeb5504]

"Butterfly effect."

[@bluebluelectricblue]

How the h@ll do people figure out all this science madness!!?? 🤯

[@bluebluelectricblue]

Truly amazing humans and bugs! Awesome world 🌎 👏

[@martinaakervik]

Since when was it allowed to have killing with medicine as goal in science? (Unless it is a very important study, that have a special approval?) Because this is a ethic that have been discussed since Hippocrates time. We use to have some rules you know, is @WIRED and those scientist aware of that?

[@sandeepsv9804]

Hope life doesn't find a way in this case

[@john_hawley]

"We simply deny them that"

[@ordinary_deepfake]

What else do we deny

[@Ananthakrishnan-no8xq]

if all mosquitoes die doesnt it affect the ecosystem balance or something like that?

[@charlesmrader]

No, it improves the ecosystem. These are an invasive species.

[@jinhyung1792]

U.S. Military: How to weaponize this? Here have $10B for research.

[@nerdmuffin4439]

I've never seen infant mosquitos and why do they look so cute? XD

[@ivan_horvat]

The way I see it... we are going to have zombie mosquitos soon😂

[@happythepanda9954]

I used the mosquito to destroy the mosquito.

[@marcelopcamargo]

still not a good title guys. try other thumbnail

[@yomommashaus]

Step 1: Make army of chad mosquitoes Step 2: Sabotage production of mosquito morning-after pill Step 3: Change bug laws to protect chad mosquitoes Step 4: Giggity

[@redhadoken3172]

I hate mosquitoes

[@kleynamoretti4252]

My number 1 and maybe the only one "I wish this animal went extinct"

[@benonaru]

I give it a month before they fill these things with microchips.

[@krumbleme2]

I don't trust the intentions

[@paddlehard5722]

There’s no way this will turn bad for humans in the end.

[@gijsweierink]

Uh oh

[@mattf9096]

I find it very puzzling that we take no issue with possibly wiping out an entire species of mosquito over time, yet we often stop control of other pests because of its environmental effect on other species. Who decides which ones we decimate and which ones we save?

[@Tinyvalkyrie410]

This species is invasive and dangerous to human lives. Generally if it kills a huge number of people and has similar species that can fill the gaps in the ecosystem (mosquitoes that don’t carry pathogens), I’m ok with population control. We have eliminated or are trying to eliminate many pathologic parasites

[@itsleo5290]

I decide Flies, spiders, mice, mosquitoes. We don't need any of them

[@charlesmrader]

Why don't you understand that this is an invasive species, meaning that it screwed up the local ecology by being where it didn't belong?

[@nikder5297]

It is ingenious that these people are trying to resolve this problem that way, but we should ask ourselves whether messing with the genes of a species could bring more harm than good. What happens for example if the research in the lab is incomplete and the new species is too vulnerable and this eventually leads to a disruption in the ecosystem as "Record.Retake .Repeat" stated? I am still insure as to whether we should experiment on something we don't fully understand in the face of nature. That aside, the video was great and enriching for me.

[@astrovation3281]

You think that these people who've been doing biological sciences for many, many years now haven't thought of that?

[@charlesmrader]

"we don't fully understand" -- do you mean something that you yourself do not understand? Tell me, if you can, how or why spraying poisons to kill mosquitoes is a better idea. Do you know how a certain poison kills mosquitoes? Do you know why certain substances repel mosquitoes? Heck, do you know how your computer works while you type comments like these?

[@serious9432]

i don't undrrstand, there are more mosquitos now as ever in south america it is increading them !

[@iBridgee]

Whoever’s reading this, I pray that whatever your struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day.

[@Militant_Vegan]

Ily

[@markedis5902]

But can you get rid of the Scottish biting midge?

[@jakobbinswanger9924]

Humans: Let’s see how we can genetically modify an animal without complete certainty what the consequences might be instead of looking which solutions nature offers already.

[@coconuts5500]

1984 moment

[@joshneibarger9481]

I am not saying this isnt a brilliant idea but ...

[@beefy6741]

Why just not wipe the mosquitoes

[@thegameranch5935]

Because of something called “the ecosystem”

[@jessicajohnston5693]

But, mosquitoes feed other animals in the enviroment, like birds and fish. How will they replace that missing link if they kill mosquitoes?

[@KxNOxUTA]

They kill a specific species. They do not remove them all. But yes as always when people meddle with stuff, the outcome is very unclear and hopefully nature is clever and produces another insect food source that's not quite this annoying to humans.

[@krypticular1232]

No single animal species relies on mosquitoes as their primary food source, so it wouldn’t cause a cascading failure that affects the predators of mosquitoes. And the procedure is only targeting a specific species of mosquito

[@krypticular1232]

@@KxNOxUTA Doesn’t need to produce another insect food source. Mosquitoes aren’t the primary food source of any species, all predators of mosquitoes have multiple food sources, so they would simply turn to these other sources. Yeah like you said, they're only targeting a specific species of mosquito as well

[@SilverDreamweaver]

Why can't we just modify the genetics of female mosquitoes so they can produce and store protein independently? We can control to see if/how to make it the dominant and preferred trait.

[@Sara3346]

Trying to make clean mosquitoes is a project other researchers are working on as far as I know.

[@charlesmrader]

That sounds like an interesting approach, but scientists would have to do a lot of research to know how to do that.

[@ordinary_deepfake]

Fake news it's been in Florida for years more than 2021 Disney used it years ago for example for comfort and business

[@astrovation3281]

"fake news", what's fake news?

[@charlesmrader]

Your comment is wrong. It hasn't been used by Disney.

[@davidbrewer6795]

Humans are next

[@nickfish3545]

Here for the malaria conspiracy theories soon to come, I agree with all of you these are the cause

[@KxNOxUTA]

So ....... has anyone checked yet if animals who consume these modified mosquitoes get any problems? Cause playing with the modification of animals in eco systems has very often led to very undesired outcomes that we than had to counter with even more investment. :'3 And we're known to have kept making it worse. I can only hope it's one of those cases where sth. decent comes out of it. And no ugly side effects of then getting birds which do not have functional femals left etc. To be fair I heard mosquitoes may actually be a result of humans being there and dveloping due to habitats we created. Not sure how far this is true, but all life impacts the world. (and such does that which is not life)

[@onkelpappkov2666]

When I eat chicken, I do not become chicken.

[@record.retake.repeat7922]

What if these mosquitoes rapidly evolve and reproduce asexually? And if their population is reduced significantly, doesn't it impact the predators that depend on them? Thus leading to disruption in the eco system?

[@astrovation3281]

There aren't any species that are dependent on mosquito's, every single one of them have alternative food sources that will only grow if you get rid of mosquito's.

[@ochrogasting]

this one is an invasive species so it never belonged in this ecosystem in the first place. also a species evolving less than millions of years to have a completely different reproductive system seems far fetched

[@Darth_Insidious]

On human time scales the only adaptations possible are within the natural genetic variation of the species. The more likely adaptation is that mosquitos already exist that don't mate with the modified males, or have resistance to the genetic manipulation. As mosquito populations die off, these resistant mosquitos fill the empty niche. But since the selective pressure is on a single species, it's more likely that other mosquito species just outcompete these mosquitoes and the species we target largely die off.

[@record.retake.repeat7922]

@@astrovation3281 ok.. so better to get rid of all those blood suckers.

[@astrovation3281]

@@record.retake.repeat7922 yep, and it will also save billions of (human) lives

[@choasisgoated]

Mosquitoes used to vaccinate people??

[@tonled6960]

im always wary when i hear the words "lab" and "release".....i feel like this could be used for nefarious purposes...

[@_imnxtxk_]

Second or third

[@astrovation3281]

Nobody cares, you're third

[@amigram2279]

Sixth

[@AG_Makes_Stuff.]

First

[@astrovation3281]

Nobody cares

[@DTheWhiteWolfD]

So the world ends by genetically modified bugs 😂

[@Mills141]

I'm excited for the opportunity to create an apocalypse 🌋

[@speedy01247]

How would this create a apocalypse.

[@WhatAreFingers]

@@speedy01247 Probably watched too many movies

[@astrovation3281]

You should be excited about the opportunity for billions of humans to not die terrible deaths because of mosquito related diseases

[@Mills141]

@@astrovation3281 you know slavery is something we could fix as humans... but adding things to insects to make them glow under uv light with idea what that could do to the ecosystem could change the world. I'm not a fan of mosquitos but removing them has consequences.

[@astrovation3281]

@@Mills141 What do you think the consequences are of removing one type of incredibly invasive mosquito's?

[@Geoffrey___]

This might be new to you guys, but it's NOWHERE CLOSE to new to me. The fact that my uncle isn't in this video proves WIRED could only interview amateurs...

[@astrovation3281]

Lmao you're funny

[@enriqueisaacs8181]

thats just wrong bruv..

[@astrovation3281]

no

[@AnymMusic]

Fck yeah! Let's play god some more!

[@astrovation3281]

What would you define as "playing god"?

[@limpnjen]

I do not like nor agree with this at all. History says trying to rid the world of "pests" is not smart and causes ripple affects.

[@blacwido3954]

Well hold on now, aren’t mosquitoes good for the environment, we don’t want to get rid of all of these guys do we?

[@pandorasbox4238]

This is a BAD idea. What if these males mate with other females? What kind of damage could that do to the ecosystem?

[@eyesfullofwondero3725]

I know no animal completly depends on mosquitoes but removing a food source for an ecosytem already damaged seems like a bad idea.

[@skybluskyblueify]

It is a non-native mosquito. There are 200 species of mosquitoes that live in the US and none of them are targeted. In fact, what if getting rid of this non-native mosquito helps other species that compete with them for resources because they were introduced by humans? Do you like the idea of getting rid of non-native rats and mice on islands to help sea birds? I do.

[@charlesmrader]

So you are saying that if a thing is damaging an ecosystem, don't try to correct the damage.

[@maryrosekent8223]

Horrible, vocal fry…unwatchable!

[@hampusbrokmann8249]

Wow they Lie so hard in this video 🤥

[@thegameranch5935]

Wut

[@suzque63]

Using the claim of a reducing one organism by offering a solution with a genetically modified organism? Yeah nothing could go wrong here 😂

[@astrovation3281]

Do you think that these big groups of people, who've been doing biological sciences for their entire life, haven't thought of every possible situation? Nothing will go wrong, if we get rid of mosquito we'll prevent billions of unnecessary deaths and on top of that there isn't a single organism dependent on mosquito's to live.

[@nursejean903]

This is just a bad idea all around

[@astrovation3281]

How so?

[@nursejean903]

@@astrovation3281 Mosquitos are food supply for a variety of species (fish, birds, insects, etc.) How will the genetic modification effect those other species that consume the gmo Mosquitos? Will it alter generations forever? Say future Mosquitos develop a resistance to the modification- will it cause a super Mosquito? How would it effect humans that are bitten by the female gmo Mosquito? Could it possibly alter our genome ? Same question for those species that eat Mosquito, would it alter it in some way? How about those Mosquitos carrying the virus, would the virus itself mutate so it doesn't get eaten by the female gmo Mosquitos? Just Luke the covid shot brought along variants, would these Mosquitos bring out variants? Why test this theory in an area that is heavly visited by tourists? There are so many unknowns that this is just a crazy test.

[@astrovation3281]

@@nursejean903 How do you expect those questions to be answered without testing (Although some/most can be answered with logical reasoning)

[@nursejean903]

@@astrovation3281 Test away but keep it out of the environment and in a lab

[@astrovation3281]

@@nursejean903 There have been many test in the lab already though

[@JahIzReal305]

I am a sheeple and I love this scientific method of controlling human population!!!

[@cieraleal8030]

I hate mosquitos but this is still really sad :( they're killing baby female mosquitos

[@ainke]

Female mosquitos are the ones that coursing the problems. Nothing personal.

[@Bigboikilljoy]

Good

[@miriammeenattoor2952]

Yes, so they don’t kill humans.

[@nighttime4272]

And? So what? You are basically killing unintelligent animals which do nothing but to reproduce, eat, excrete, of course breathe and then die. You are killing slaves which you can't enslave. You can't make them change their nature (by that I mean culture or abillities. Humans develop laws and technology, animals can't. You can say that giraffes, elephants, monkeys, turtles, dogs, wolves, octupuses, orcas and crows are socially intelligent, still, they aren't humans. With mosquitos, you are basically killing dumb slaves which behave like hitlers because they can't survive otherwise.

[@thechicken1477]

The mosquitos could be killing baby female humans, is that better to you?

[@burberryducks6481]

6:01 The grandpa with the blower sprays someone. 😂 I cant trust an old homeless looking man to be the “guy” that does the spraying. There no way he’s qualified any sort of manner, rule, or law. If thats not smoke then holy Jesus i feel bad for the person that got sprayed. If he sprayed me with that smoke/pesticide i would freak out and die of a stroke.

[@indryyunita02]

First

[@astrovation3281]

Nobody cares, you're fourth

[@69RedWingsForever69]

First

[@Bigboikilljoy]

You’re not first

[@astrovation3281]

Nobody cares, you're second