Let's start off with a basic fact. We all hate mosquitoes. They are as irritating as anything can possibly be. They make that annoying noise in our ears and leave bite marks that itch like hell.

No wonder you just want to kill them off as soon as you see them. I have personally thought about several sci-fi ways to get rid of them including high-pitched sounds, a system that scans them in an area and zaps them with lasers, and many more.

Anyways, some scientists have gone the gene-hacking route to deal with this menace. Of course, they don't want to eradicate all the species of mosquitoes, of which, there are many. They just want to reduce or eradicate species that spread dengue and Zika.

As someone who has had dengue fever, I fully support this. However, many other scientists are actually opposing this plan. They have provided some sane explanation of why this might not be a good idea.

It Might Backfire

So, this releasing of gene-hacked mosquitoes is being done by a company called Oxitec. They plan to release millions upon millions of modified mosquitoes in Florida and Texas. They also have approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan is to release these mosquitoes which are genetically engineered sterile breeds. They would spread out into the wild and mate with healthy female mosquitoes. However, since they are sterile, the mating wouldn't result in offsprings.

Doing so can drastically reduce the number of mosquitoes that are born in the next generation. Different teams throughout the world have actually tested this concept in lab settings and it has worked.

However, when this was tried in Brazil it backfired terribly. Instead of reducing the next-gen mosquito population, it gave rise to super resilient genetic hybrids. These were even more difficult to kill.

The scientists who are opposing this have given additional reasons why it shouldn't be done. For one, they are concerned about the lack of oversight. Proper monitoring is required to measure the impact of this experiment. If it has an adverse impact on the local ecosystem, it could lead to devastating effects down the line on other species.