a world without mosquitoes is one step closer to coming true | The Woodsman Hut | Forums

KVR said
What about the bats and other animals that feed off mosquitos? Not sure if this is a good thing.

Destroying the mosquito population may soon become more than just a dream for the bug-averse.

The plan could become reality in the Florida Keys, where Intrexon Corporation’s Oxitec Ltd. XON, +7.05% has proposed letting genetically-engineered mosquitoes free in a bid to cut down on the Aedes aegypti strain, which transmits the Zika virus, among other mosquito-borne diseases.

If allowed, it would be the first time something like this is tried with mosquitoes in the U.S., and is aimed not at the recent surge in the Zika virus in Latin America but rather at dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease that flared up in the U.S. in 2009 after decades of inactivity.

Oxitec calls its mosquitoes “self-limiting”: the male mosquitoes are genetically bred so when they mate with female mosquitoes, the offspring die. The male mosquitoes die off, too, so within six to eight weeks, the mosquitoes and their progeny are gone.

Mosquitoes seem like a prime candidate for eradication. Beneath their merely pesky appearance lies a disease-spreading agent, responsible for transmitting Zika virus and dengue but also chikungunya, West Nile virus, yellow fever and malaria.

more http://www.marketwat.....2016-04-20

Remember I said that I learned at a pest conference earlier this year that I leanred bats eat very few mosquitos.  Not sure that mosquitos are the primary diet for any animal.  Maybe fish eat a lot of larve??

KVR said
forgot about that, the other downside is that they are pollinators

mosiquitos are pollinators???  (Not doubting you so much as just that I never knew that).