Meh, the global ecosystem is fucked anyway. Might as well trim out the especially annoying bits and enjoy some relative comfort on our way to extinction. If doing so accelerates our downfall a bit, that’s a fair trade.
I say it’s worth the risk.
Just gotta figure out how to turn their proboscis inside out with gene editing, make that an oral med, put it in a “supplement”, and get marketing to sell it to them as a dick enhancer.
Make sure to label it “HOMEOPATHIC” and the government will leave you alone.
Just a guess… they’re probably a food source low in the chain. Disrupt the food chain and we’re screwed.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what-purposes-do-mosquitoes-serve-in-ecosystems
Well there’s like 30 species and only 4 that hurt humans, so mosquitoes can stay, but those specific 4 can die off.
There’s one specific species that causes malaria. Getting rid of that particular one would probably do more good than harm. Their place on the food chain can be filled in by others.
But if they fill in the place in the food chain, that also means they need to be snacking on us.
And I’m not just saying that to be a smart-ass. If humans were a different species, we’d call them horrendously invasive, awful for local ecosystems and that it’s really important that their numbers are kept in check, or whatever other euphemisms there are.
No, I don’t want to suggest that we should leave humans to die, but we should be aware that it’s not as simple as just saving a few lives. We will run into different problems sooner rather than later.
Everything I’ve read suggests that mosquitoes aren’t a primary food source for anything, and that their absence would be relatively easily adusted for by those creatures that do eat them. Still, that’s a hell of a dice roll.
Edit: And apparently that may be wrong anyway.
For other animals—such as lizards, frogs, spiders, and other insects—adult mosquitoes are the primary food source.
I have argued for the same caution every single time this came up on Reddit, because I know of a dozen examples in history where we fucked up something similar.
I got downvoted every single time, across several posts over the years, because obviously the hive mind believes things will be different this time! The thing that males me confident it’ll fail is I’ve never seen, and nobody’s ever provided, an example where this type of ecological engineering has actually succeeded for the better.
The biggest reason it may be different this time is previously we were all like, “let’s exterminate dogs,” and it turns out dogs are important. This time is more like “let’s exterminate pitbulls.” There will still be plenty of mosquitos around if the plan is ever put into motion, we are only targeting a very small slice of them. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues, it could well be just as big a mistake as all the previous times. But at least it is more likely to work out.
this type of ecological engineering
Do you count reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone to be the same type of ecological engineering? I haven’t checked progress on that for a while but the last I heard, it was too early to say whether it was successful. I highlight Yellowstone because of how cautious the effort was (it took years of planning and analysis) and this caution feels like it’s directly descended from the fuck ups of the past
Mosquitos aren’t some special niche. Take out mosquitos and something else moves in to replace them, something that doesn’t bite.
There’s nothing that solely depends on mosquitos, and wouldn’t prefer to eat other things which mosquitos may be suppressing by existing themselves.
“But bitey”
If we could we’d try to kill algae and plankton for turning the oceans green and ruining our pictures. We’re not a smart group, us.
To be fair, mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal to humans because of disease spread. It’s not just annoying, itchy bites.
It’s true and I get that just that we can’t go eradicating one of the bases of most terrestial ecosystems based on that.
Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every single war ever conducted by humans since the dawn of time, combined.
Funny how much (actual scientific) debate is around mosquito extinction event whilst we are well into a mass extinction event we caused (not to mention all the direct and systemic ecosystem eradication such as marshlands of all sorts).
Because then we will have a few years of being able to sit outside in peace before going outside and melting.
I think they researched this and found that literally no creature completely rely on mosquitos, and that if they were wiped out the power vaccum would be replaced by other small flying insects that are within the diets of the creatures that would otherwise eat mosquitoes. So yeah, there really isn’t anything stopping us from wiping them out. I say do it, and just keep some in a lab just in case if fucks stuff up. Or maybe more reasonably just modify them so they can’t suck human blood or pierce human skin, which I’m pretty sure we’re also already capable of.
Or maybe dont eradicate them? They’ve been here for millions of years why do we feel like their existence is worthless because they bother us, I say, prevent them from carrying diseases instead…
mosquitos have killed more humans than any other animal or disease ever. you might change your mind about them if your child died due to them, but luckily you probably won’t ever have to experience that because of privilege.
Ok girl, I get your point but I don’t think we should eradicate a whole species for our convenience, I’d rather we give the people access to healthcare so that the illnesses carried by mosquitoes don’t kill anymore.
By the way I’m actually allergic to getting stung by these pests, if one decides to go for my neck I go to the ER.
If you haven’t seen Puss in Boots 2, do yourself a big favor and go see it.
On the surface this seems like it could be a running joke. A sequel to an 11 year old spinoff from Shrek 2. Ridiculous that they came out with such a good film.
