Mutant Mosquitos...Save the World?

Do you know which animal kills the most humans each year? Mosquitos. Yup. Those tiny little suckers carry all sorts of diseases, such as dengue fever, Zika, and yellow fever. Ick.

So why would we want to introduce mutant mosquitos?

Imagine if you could wave a magic wand and make all the mosquitos in an area suddenly stop mosquitoing. What scientists did was a little more complicated than that, but might have a similar effect!

First, we need to know that only female mosquitos bite and infect humans.

Next, let’s look at these mutant mosquitos. They are males only, with extra fluffy antennae. These special antennae make them extra appealing to female mosquitos. However, these males also have a bit of a surprise hidden in their DNA: all of their female offspring will die before they get old enough to produce offspring.

So, the next generation will be smaller. And, hopefully, the next generation after that will be even smaller. If all goes according to plan, the mutant mosquitos will cut down the mosquito population quite a bit, and hopefully reduce the spread of disease too.

Scientists have been growing mutant mosquitos in Florida and the mosquitos are finally old enough to get out there and start messing with the population. Let’s see what happens!

Sources:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mosquito-genetically-modified-us-florida-keys-pest-control-zika-dengue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti