Deadly to mosquitoes, but depending on where you are, it could be a lot less deadly to malaria mosquitoes. Just going by Wikipedia[0] here:
> One important behavioral factor is the degree to which an Anopheles species prefers to feed on humans (anthropophily) or animals such as cattle or birds. Anthropophilic Anopheles are more likely to transmit the malaria parasites from one person to another. Most Anopheles mosquitoes are not exclusively anthropophilic or zoophilic. However, the primary malaria vectors in Africa, A. gambiae and A. funestus, are strongly anthropophilic and, consequently, are two of the most efficient malaria vectors in the world.
What if the effect of this approach is not eradication of mosquitoes but evolution, though? Mosquitos evolving to avoid livestock would need to compensate by feeding more somewhere else. That somewhere might be humans.
How about placing in our blood flow a CRISPR that embeds into mosquitoes' DNA something that makes all their offspring sterile after four generations? For three generations they should be fertile thus moving genes around.
doesn't this cause a problem similar to the "superbugs" epidemic? i.e., the population of malaria-carrying insects takes a big hit, but then the only ones left are the ones who have adapted to survive (found a new food source) and the population builds back up?
Single celled organisms evolve a lot faster than multi cell organisms. So, one long timescales it would be a problem, but solutions that only work for 100 years are still useful.
There are new compounds being used in the veterinary world that may be better options. Fluralaner, for example, appears to have few side effects and remains in effective concentrations to kill fleas and ticks for over 3 months in dogs. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these drugs being used to cure children of headlice in the near future.
Ivermectin, and a lot of other drugs in the class of macrocyclic lactones, are considered "endectocides" in that they kill nematodes (endoparasites) and insects (ectoparasites). I don't understand why they aren't studying moxidectin, a related compound which persists in the body at effective concentrations for a month or more.
Wouldn't it be possible to make clothes filled with the bad blood which are attractive to mosquitos? Maybe using diseased's skin or anything mosquitos want to sting (and keep the bad blood slowly "pumping" using sun heat).
Is it just me, or does that star-shaped thing look absolutely terrifying? I really don't want that in my stomach. I'd much rather take daily (or even bi-daily) pills, or even some sort of slow release injection.
I thought it was one of the more interesting parts of the article! Deploying a multi-week dose of anything in a single pill seems like a fantastic tool.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-newspaper-t...
worth a read!