'Halt This Nightmare': Alarm as Florida Set to Begin Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes

[Jirel]

8. This is not a "nightmare" except to people who don't trust science.

This is a terrific program. The lab-created male mosquitos will die. The offspring will die. There is no scientific basis to worry about creating some new strain of super-mosquitos. The modified mosquitos have been tested in the lab, but the only way to test further is to do limited testing in limited locations in the wild - which is what they are doing.

There are only two questions to be answered:
1) Does this work to sufficiently decrease mosquito populations in the test areas?
2) Does this work TOO effectively in decreasing populations, so that animals that rely on the mosquitos for food begin to suffer?

Regardless, they will have ONE GENERATION of testing. Male mosquitos live 6-9 days. They will know the answer in under two weeks, and then the test subjects are dead with no real risk.