If you're going to war with mosquitos...

dculberson wrote:

Robbie wrote: Would rather adjust the moquitos DNA so they cannot carry malaria and also so that their bites dont itch. then bite away little guys. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't made that genetic mutation yet to evolve bites that don't itch. If your bite doesn't itch, I have much less reason to kill you.

I had this thought about poison ivy the other day. The very thing that they evolved to use for their defense - the itchy rash-causing oils they cover themselves with - are the reason why people kill them. Kind of ironic.

Does poison ivy have a companion plant similar to docking leaves are to nettles?

I've been hearing about this for years.. I'm at the shut up and take my money phase, especially if it can be configured you also drop biting midges. Those things cause me huge itchy welts that last a few days.

Unfortunately, I'm thinking it's vapor ware at this point.

In reply to WonkoTheSane:

No! Not another Elio! Biting midges are pretty horrible but they are slow and easy to escape from.

dculberson wrote:

Robbie wrote: Would rather adjust the moquitos DNA so they cannot carry malaria and also so that their bites dont itch. then bite away little guys. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't made that genetic mutation yet to evolve bites that don't itch. If your bite doesn't itch, I have much less reason to kill you.

I had this thought about poison ivy the other day. The very thing that they evolved to use for their defense - the itchy rash-causing oils they cover themselves with - are the reason why people kill them. Kind of ironic.

It made sense, evolutionarily-speaking, before the advent of species that could alter chemistry as they saw fit and invent Roundup. Or, more viscerally, control and direct fire.

(Soothing, cleansing fire. Fire... FIRE... FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE

In reply to aircooled:

I don't think you are following my point. The problem of greed, corruption... Are extremely complex. The answers there are not simple. I'm not going to quibble about details of every little fact and derail the awesomeness of this thread.