Look at this photograph. And also this mosquitos graph! Scientists are making the insects deaf, and no they're not blasting Nickelback. That would be cruel and unusual punishment even for mosquitos.
Still, they are trying to make male mosquitos deaf to reduce the population. This effectively stops them from mating with females and therefore reduces the population of the disease-carrying insects. Have you ever wondered how the insects get down and dirty? No? Well, too bad. Because I got the details for you.
They mate in mid-air, and you thought your love life was crazy. But males rely on their ability to hear females flying nearby. Therefore, if the males can't hear then they can't mate. Scientists were able to create genetically modified male mosquitos that are essentially deaf. Therefore, they won't be able to mate when it come time to get down and dirty.
Mosquitos Population
It's all thanks to a gene called a specific gene called trpVa. Professor Craig Montell opened up about the discovery. He said that the altered males showed no interest in mating at all. "You could leave them together with the females for days, and they will not mate," Montell said. "If they can't hear the female wingbeat, they're not interested,"
It's all in an attempt to stop the population from growing larger and to actually reduce it.
"On summer evenings, we often see swarms of mosquitoes gathered by the water or under streetlights. These gatherings are essentially mass mating events," said co-lead author Yijin Wang, a former postdoc at UCSB.
What about deaf females? Well, researchers found that deaf females still sometimes sought out partners. It wasn't as effective at controlling the population. "The impact on the female is minimal, but the impact on the male is absolute," Montell said. The team plans to do more research into it.
"I think the reason why our major finding is so shocking is because, in most organisms, mating behavior is dependent on a combination of several sensory cues," said Duge, one of Montell's doctoral students. "The fact that taking away a single sense can completely abolish mating is fascinating."
