I read once that ironically one of the most important ecological niches for mosquitos is that they keep humans out of a bunch of places that allow those habitats to be preserved. It’s their annoyance and medical danger to people that makes them so valuable to the ecosystem.
Cool well we can put up some do not trespass signs
KILL ALL MOSQUITOS
It doesn’t matter how many “no trespassing” signs we put up because mosquitos can’t read
Yeah… signs don’t really work on all humans.
Neither do mosquitoes though
yepp
Shit, as a Floridian, you may have just convinced me we should let them live. We already have too many people moving here.
No takesy-backies!
That, and their larvae clean freshwater we wouldn’t ever think about cleaning, so there’s that too.
Smartest argument that I’ve heard for their existence!
I wonder what face would ticks pull in this case where we already know there is no drawback for 100% annihilating them.
Those little monsters would just try harder.
This is one gamble I am willing to make.
As much as I hate mosquitoes, I must admit that without them, entire ecological systems would collapse…
Since 1990, 90% of the insexts dissapeared. So yeah let exterminate more.
Source?
90% PERCENT OF THE INSEXTS
I think its unethical to cause an animal to go extinct on purpose. Like it seems a very nuclear option to me.
On the other hand I hate these mosquitoes tho… And they are a medical threat to humans
Is it unethical to make smallpox go extinct?
Yeah, if we let them live, people suffer and die. If we make them extinct some bugs will die ¯_(ツ)_/¯
damnit…
imma watch this movie again.
I take it the answer is that we still (unfortunately) need them?
Last I checked, the only niche they fill in nature is being food for predators like dragonflies and bats.
I can feed those dragonflies and bats myself, so no need for those mosquitoes. I say bring out the nuclear option
Untrue.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what-purposes-do-mosquitoes-serve-in-ecosystems
https://blog.nwf.org/2020/09/what-purpose-do-mosquitoes-serve/
https://www.mosquitoreviews.com/learn/mosquitoes-pollination
There’s different species that serve different purposes in the ecosystem.
https://www.lukerchocolate.com/en/innovation/meet-the-mosquito-behind-cocoa-tree-pollination/
https://www.nps.gov/articles/chocolate-midge.htm
All that being said, I can’t stand them lol
okay, but what happens if those die out? Will there be more?
They have varied enough diets to be mostly fine without them.
I read that only a few species bite humans. If this is correct, we can exterminate just those, and leave the rest for the dragonflies and the bats
Its sort of ironic how mosquitoes are at the very bottom of the food chain for most of the ecologies they inhabit… But at the same time, is the biggest killer (through the transmission of malaria and other diseases) of humans, who see themselves at the top of the food chain.
In reality, the food chain is more like a food cycle.
…humans, who see themselves…
y-you mean ourselves, right?
Are we really that different? Sucking the crude out of the ground and shitting it into the air until one day the world’s had enough of our shit and smacks us down.
I think about this all the time.
Unfortunately, we probably can’t. A LOT of things eat mosquitos.
I’ll settle for a repellent that works or better yet something that makes me no longer react to bites.
There is some promising research with gene drives, which are essentially genes that when passed on to offspring, overwrite the other copy of the gene from the other parent.
It may be possible to introduce non disease spreading mosquitoes with gene drives into the wild and within an extremely short time all mosquitoes in the population would be non disease carrying.
Of course, this is something that you may not be able to reverse once done, so it’s a pretty drastic step to take after very intense scrutiny.
I’d be more than fine with this, I just don’t want us to hate mosquitoes into a four pests scenario.
True, the issue of being bitten would not go away. Perhaps a gene that makes them not attracted to biting humans somehow, but that would be a lot harder to implement
OP, take your nail, the sharpest you have.
Now press it firmly into the sting, then rotate by 90° and repeat.
Dunno if it’s placebo but makes some itching go away for me.
We have a suction tool, I think it’s literally called the bug bite thing or something. Basically it suctions on to your arm where the bite was and you pull your skin up into this tube and it sucks out the venom that causes the itching as well as the stinger if one was left behind.
My wife and I haven’t had a bug bite any time we’ve had that thing handy, so mainly we just put it on each other’s nipples for shits & gigs. I can’t really say that it’s effective, but it is fun.
To be clear - @happyhippo@feddit.it means your FINGERnail. Don’t stab yourself.
Lol indeed. Thanks for making it clear.
You’re still among us, OP, are you?
