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Ryuu96 on 19 May 2024
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Shtinamin_ said:

Has anyone else heard of what California is doing to the mosquito infestation?

So if you live there, I really do suggest staying away from the mosquitos, putting on mosquito repellent (DEET), and/or moving out of the area.

There's a bacteria which can effectively sterilise mosquitos and is already very common among insect populations: "Wolbachia is the most widespread bacteria in animals and lives symbiotically within the reproductive tissues of about 50% of insect species" which is being used in some sterilisation programs: "This system is being used in several ongoing pilot studies across the world to control insect pests and the harmful viral diseases they carry. For example, to control a population of agricultural or human pests that do not have the bacteria, scientists release males with Wolbachia in order to crash the population."

But here: Wolbachia’s prophage WO genes code for proteins that interfere with normal development of sperm cells. These proteins impact a critical transformation during sperm development, when the sperm’s genome is repackaged and the sperm changes from a canoe-shape into a more refined needle-like shape. “This shape change is incredibly important to the success of sperm, and any interference can impact the sperm’s ability to travel in the female reproductive tract and successfully fertilize the egg,” said Rupinder Kaur, assistant research professor of biology and entomology at Penn State and the other leader of the research team. “The transition is highly conserved in almost everything from insects to humans. Defects in this process can also cause male sterility in humans.”

Is them simply explaining how the process works and such process would cause sterility in humans too, not that the bacteria would cause it but that if such a process were to happen in humans, the sperm would be rendered ineffective. Humans have a vastly different immune system to insects and Wolbachia can not infect humans. Wolbachia can only infect invertebrate organisms (that is, animals without a backbone), therefore, there is no risk that humans will become infected with the bacteria, and risks to humans and the environment associated with releasing Wolbachia‐carrying mosquitoes are believed to be minor.

  • Wolbachia CANNOT be transferred through a mosquito bite
  • Wolbachia CANNOT survive outside insects

NEA | Wolbachia is Safe and Natural

So Wolbachia is completely harmless to humans.

Onto California's process, they aren't using Wolbachia, they're sterilising the mosquitos using radiation. Also male mosquitoes don't bite.

So nobody needs to leave California, Lol. I also don't imagine people intentionally go up to mosquitos to begin with and people should use mosquito repellent in high mosquito density areas regardless just because mosquitos are annoying, disgusting little things that carry disease, which is probably what a lot of people do anyway, but when it comes to Wolbachia and California's process, completely harmless.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 19 May 2024