re: Why does Google plan to release tens of millions of mosquitoes into the U.S.?

Let’s just say releasing bioengineered mosquitoes, ticks, viruses upon the planet should carry automatic death sentences and be done with it. The ones that have “worked “ seem to come with a cost on society

yeah, the "Everything is connected" idea seems true in ecology, but I agree we've also had successful insect-suppression programs before. Unless I'm missing something the concern is about people not trusting the institutions running it rather than that this particular approach is different from those successful programs.

Deemed a great success???

Is this like the success of the useless wind and solar farms?

The introduction of Kudzu to the south?

The humane release of pythons into the Everglades?

The Nutria introduction. Heck I didnt realize it wasnt just Louisiana to introduced them, the federal govt introduced them to Chesapeake Bay as well.

That's kind of what I'm trying to sort out. We seem to have examples that people regard as successes and examples that people regard as disasters. So "humans should never intervene in ecosystems" doesn't seem right, but neither does "every intervention is a good idea".

What's the better rule for evaluating a proposal like this before it gets deployed?

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The male mosquitos are infected with something that, when they mate with females, will cause the eggs not to hatch. Counterintuitively, it will ultimately greatly reduce the mosquito population.

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In 15 years the results of a study into why humans are no longer fertile shows the cause to be mosquito bites.

Humans have been living with the nuisance of mosquito since forever, now some techies want to play God and artificially change ecology.

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Humans have been living with the nuisance of mosquito since forever,

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Google what animal kills the most humans each year.

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you don't have to worry about getting mRNA injected by your neighborhood swarm of Aedes Egyptii. The males are strictly pollinators and do not feed on blood. That's only females.

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Similar programs are used extensively to control the screwworm flies.

How can they legally do this? Seems like there would be some sort of environmental violations

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I have two groups of Barn Swallows that nest on my back porch. They have been nesting there for 5 or 6 years now.

They fly out in the backyard in the evening along with some that nest nearby, and fill up on flying pests.

Just got to put something under their nests to catch the mess. A triangle piece of wood works great since it's in the corner. Just slide it up there on top of the trim and off to hose off.

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Most of the swallows in my area nest beneath the many bridges over ravines, creeks and rivers. But I have a detached carport where a few families nest every year up in the braces. Their offspring all just actually flew the nest last week. I counted three nests with three surviving hatchlings each. I never disturb them because I fully understand their beneficial qualities. I don't even remove the nests because they're only crapping on gravel and I honestly look forward to their return every spring.

Between bats, birds, dragonflies and the outside cats, the insect nuisance remains manageable. The murderous ecological disasters that they are, the cats also provide the added benefit of excellent control in killing off gophers, moles, copperheads and pygmy rattlesnakes (which are prolific in my area). One of the big tomcats, just yesterday, brought us a gift to the back deck- a field rat the size of a small squirrel.