This is a response to a news item by danielpbarron
It is time for the flying syringes to die. The wankery of various criminal gangs masquerading as national governments is too little too late. It is worth noting that of all the methods by which genetically modified mosquitoes may be used against this pest, the one being tested uses the least effective possible strategy and comes at the greatest expense. The Oxitec mosquito being tested merely produce sterile matings. More effective solutions including genetic changes forcing all male broods carry more promise for enabling actual extinction of the noxious species.
It is worthless to discussion the mosquito problem in terms of control. Nothing short of eradicating disease carrying mosquitoes will do. Simply the continued existence of disease carrying mosquitoes is a mortal hazard to people, and persons enabling the continued mosquito hazard by suggesting and acting to promote continued co-existence with flying syringes is an enemy of humanity.1 Maximally impeding the continued work of flying syringes with the goal of eradication is a moral imperative.
Instead of waiting take initiative to clear your local environments of flying syringes. This means less skirting the problem with repellents and more deployment of lethal measures like BTi toxin, lethal ovitraps, and improved drainage. Put your local would be rulers on the hot seat and make them take action pushing them to commit to eradication rather than control. The Zika panic may or may not be useful for inspiring the right kind of personal dread in the local chieftans.
One of the last reasonable actions by the United States Government before it completely reverted to a criminal gang cheaply selling its services to other criminal enterprises was its glorious 4 year long pogrom against the bloodsuckers which culminated in the eradication of endemic malaria within the borders of the United States. Malaria used to be endemic in the United States. Malaria wasn't just a Southern problem. On the eastern seaboard its terror went north beyond Boston and in the central United States the malaria problem crossed into Canada through a substantial portion of the northern border. In the intervening six decades the victory has been frittered away.
As the Fiat governments continue to plumb new depths of moral and financial bankruptcy they can not be counted of for a solution, but whatever parts of the beast yet have blood to squeeze, let us squeeze to to advance this righteous cause of extinction. Bill Gates can keep blowing his wad all over non-lethal netting while people of action take action. Peace in Our Time.
Not in some abstract sense of "the people" but in its actual meaning as persons in the plural ↩
Since mosquitoes are attracted to people with higher cholesterol, larger carbon dioxyde emissions, this is actually a strictly American problem.