[repsilat]

How is "Can't breed" a good thing? Something to do with

> good bugs ... will stop bad ones from reproducing

? Are mosquitos monogamous (or do they just get really tired after sex, or do they transmit the infection to others...) If "good bugs" don't bite, I'd have thought you'd want them to reproduce as much as possible, so long as not-biting was hereditary. A non-reproducing population can never out-compete the reproducing rest of the species.

[raldi]

This is all explained in the video. The process has nothing to do with genetics; the good bugs don't bite because they're all male (the females are weeded out by the scientists), and male mosquitoes never bite. And they can't breed because of a bacteria related to healthy egg development. The good bugs still mate (with bad bugs, since there are no good female bugs), they still fertilize the eggs, but the eggs don't work.

[repsilat]

That explains most of it -- the not biting, the displacement effect. Still, infertility is strongly selected against. Unless the introduced mosquitoes completely displace existing males in the mating pool, or the bacteria are transmitted between mosquitoes, it sounds like a pretty short term fix. With males living only 10 days, wouldn't the population bounce back pretty quickly?

[sohkamyung]

The bacteria being used is probably Wolbachia. Singapore is one place where a trial of such Wolbachia treated male mosquitoes will take place to see how well it works. You can find out more details about the technology and the Singapore trials via this link [1]

- [1] "Wolbachia-Aedes Mosquito Suppression Strategy" [ http://www.nea.gov.sg/public-health/environmental-public-hea... ]