What will happen when the U.S. releases genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys despite the opposition of 230,000 people?

Mosquitoes can be annoying at times, but they are amazingly adaptable and breed very well, no matter where you live and how many floors you live on, as long as it's summer, mosquitoes will always find you.

Now there are indeed some ways to make mosquito populations plummet, but with their huge population base, playing an important role in the ecosystem, you can hardly come down hard.

However, the U.S. has gotten real with some mosquitoes this time around, as they recently started releasing genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.

We know that all blood-sucking mosquitoes are females, while males will only eat some nectar and tree sap. In order not to let the genetically modified mosquitoes affect humans, this time the male mosquitoes are genetically modified, after all, they have almost no intercourse with people.

Simply put, the male mosquitoes carry "lethal genes" to find normal female mosquitoes to mate, and then these "lethal genes" will be passed onto the offspring, and these "lethal genes " will prevent the female offspring to build some of the proteins necessary for survival, while the male offspring is not affected. When these proteins are not available, the female offspring will die before maturity, while the male offspring can still go to scourge other females.

However, this decision was opposed by many people, and opponents have set up a website so that internet users can sign a petition at any time.

By the time the GM mosquitoes were released, a total of 237,410 people had signed a petition to stop the program.

Because there are so many opponents, the release is "secret", and the public is not informed of the exact location of the release, for fear of sabotage of the equipment.

So the question is, why did the U.S. have to vote this time? And why will 230,000 people oppose the elimination of mosquitoes, they are afraid of what?

What is the origin of the mosquitoes to be eliminated?

The reason why the United States this time dare to use genetic technology to deal with mosquitoes, part of the reason is that they want to eliminate the number of mosquito populations this time is not much, but aggressive.

This mosquito called Aedes aegypti (Aedes aegypti) said it looks quite similar to our flower mosquitoes, this mosquito is a typical invasive species, about 1600 years or so through the slave trade arrived in the United States.

This invasion was not very successful, and they account for only about 4% of all mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. The region is the most mosquito-hit area in the United States, and the species with the highest percentage is the salt marsh mosquito.

Salt marsh mosquitoes will bite all mammals, but Aedes aegypti mosquitoes do not know where to think, they only like food - human blood.

Not only that, but Aedes aegypti is also a carrier of pathogens such as Zika virus, dengue fever, chikungunya fever, and yellow fever.

It is believed that between 2009 and 2010, an outbreak of dengue fever in the western Florida Keys was blamed on the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and it was this incident that drove the release of the genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquito.

(In fact, the bill for this program was proposed in 2010, but it has been suppressed locally and not implemented.)

The low percentage, high damage, and also pick on humans, so it makes sense that they are governed.

According to the biological company implementing this plan, an invasive species, with only 4% of the population, has so little impact on the ecosystem that it is perfectly possible to restrain them by genetic means.

Moreover, there have been successful tests elsewhere, such as in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia, among many other areas where the population of Aedes aegypti has dropped by 90% through this method.

Most importantly, the Florida Keys previously needed to invest $1 million a year to treat mosquitoes and other pests, while putting in genetically modified mosquitoes can greatly reduce the cost and has a big flavor of a once-and-for-all.

The traditional method of dealing with mosquitoes is to kill them by aerial spraying of insecticides, but now mosquitoes are becoming more tolerant, so there is a real need to invest in new methods as well.

That said, negative reports are also a lot, the potential risks are also very large, and opponents of the biggest demand is not want to be used as "guinea pigs".

The potential risks of genetically modified mosquitoes

Many of the places where GM mosquitoes are released are on islands because some risks cannot be assessed, and if there is an uncontrolled situation, the islands can effectively prevent the spread.

The GM mosquitoes released do pose some public health risks, including the fact that female offspring carrying the "lethal gene" can survive and reproduce when exposed to tetracycline-based antibiotics.

These surviving females will have altered bacteria that may increase the risk of drug-resistant infections in humans who are bitten by them.

That is, it is possible that a situation similar to a "superbug" infection could arise, when the antibiotics we now know may not be effective against these infections.

Moreover, tetracycline is still relatively widespread, it is often found in human feces, but also often used to treat fruit trees, as long as in these contaminated water bodies, female mosquitoes will have the opportunity to survive until the completion of reproduction, and who knows what the next generation of such female mosquitoes will be born.

A particularly alarming quote on the opponents' website reads, "Almost all experiments with genetically modified crops end up with unintended consequences: superweeds that are more resistant to herbicides and mutated, resistant insects that cause collateral damage to ecosystems."

Indeed, our use of "genetic modification" is still too short-lived for anyone to know what the result will be, which could take a long time to prove, and now that the subjects are human-biting mosquitoes, it's unimaginable that problems could arise.

Finally

The biological company has not answered a lot of questions, and even in the previous launch data there are two completely contradictory data, so many members of the public in the Florida Keys think they are being used as "guinea pigs".

Starting in late April, the biotech company set up boxes of mosquito eggs at six sites on three islands, and over the next 12 weeks, about 12,000 newly hatched males will fly out of the boxes in search of females.

If all goes well, another 20 million will be released later this year, the result will be what is a new chapter without mosquitoes, or open Pandora's Box, no one can answer now.