Is it possible to kill all mosquitoes?
But, what will happen if we kill all mosquitoes?
Mosquitoes are responsible for transferring deadly diseases to human beings and also in plants.
There are more than 3000 species of mosquitoes in the world. But, only 100 of them bite humans. Mosquitoes have been exist in the earth for long time. Many play important ecological roles. For example, the mosquitoes in the Artic region pollinate the plants and it is the major food source for migratory birds. We probably do not able to kill all the mosquitoes.
As we know, mosquitoes are the vectors or carriers of the deadly diseases and cannot produce the diseases. Aedes aegypti mosquito acts as a vector for the yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya and zika virus. In 2015, a British company called Oxitec created a male A.aegypti mosquitoes with a self limiting gene that can stop their cells from functioning normally. When this mosquito mates with female, the self limiting gene will pass on to the offspring. This offspring will eventually die before becoming an adult because of the self limiting gene.
Likewise, a group of scientists in California inserted modified gene into an Anopheles mosquitoes which are vectors for Malaria. This modified gene kills the Malaria producing parasites inside the mosquitoes before they can transmit them to the human beings. And also they observed that these genes would pass to 99% of their offsprings. Thus we can eradicate entire malaria disease by using this gene. And scientists think that this same technology is used to kill other diseases.
So, basically it is very difficult and possibly harmful to kill all mosquitoes. But we may focus on these things and take away their ability to infect us and thus making the world more safer.
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