Taking the Deadly Out of Skeeters
By Steve Casimiro, Adventure Journal on January 17th, 2012
While mosquito bites are a nuisance in the North American wilds, in much of the world they can also carry deadly dengue fever. But Australian scientists just released thousands of the pests carrying a strain of bacterium called Wolbachia, which stops the virus from reproducing. There’s also evidence the bugs become less likely to carry encephalitis. Whether that means the same methods could be used to prevent the spread of other diseases remains vague. But there’s no call for eradication, as pleasing as the idea might be — mosquitoes are food for lots of species, from birds, to bats.
