--- title: Why We Can’t Get Rid of All Mosquitoes description: Why we can't just get rid of all the mosquitoes, why the GOP should be fighting for campaign finance reform and more. canonical: https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-04T17:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:28.239Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why We Can't Get Rid of All Mosquitoes og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why We Can't Get Rid of All Mosquitoes twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why We Can't Get Rid of All Mosquitoes by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 4, 2016 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 4, 2016 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Can we get rid of mosquitoes all together?**](http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/02/01/to-eliminate-zika-why-not-wipe-out-mosquitoes/) By Helen Coster at Reuters **2\.** [**The GOP should be fighting for campaign finance reform.**](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/opinion/the-conservative-case-forcampaign-finance-reform.html) By Richard W. Painter in the New York Times **3\.** [**If Nigeria can’t defeat Boko Haram, who can?**](http://time.com/4204044/boko-haram-nigeria-dalori-massacre/) By Aryn Baker in Time **4\.** [**Here’s how the Obama administration has tried to fix America’s broken retirement system.**](http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianmenickella/2016/02/02/obamas-quiet-crusade-against-a-broken-retirement-system/) By Brian Menickella in Forbes **5\.** [**What should we do with hundreds of idle coal-fired power plants?**](http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/what-to-do-with-americas-abandoned-power-plants) By Daniel J. McGraw in Pacific Standard  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/"},"headline":"Why We Can't Get Rid of All Mosquitoes","datePublished":"2016-02-04T17:00:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:28.239Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/","keywords":["Innovation","Retirement","Campaign Finance","Power","Boko Haram","Zika"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4207781/why-we-cant-get-rid-of-all-mosquitoes/","name":"Why We Can't Get Rid of All Mosquitoes"}}]}] ```