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?
Their username makes this joke even funnier.
i didnt realise …
Wait, you guys are still meatbags?
Its calles food web sometimes
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…
Are we sure about that though? There are a lot of other small insects that fill the same niche without biting humans (including other mosquito species).
I remember people used to complain, “what about the bats?” until we found that mosquitos make up at most 2% of a bat’s diet.
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.
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?
I guess we humans have a different code of ethics for diseases and bacteria… Team DNA mixing vs team DNA cloning… A fight as old as life itself
Team preoccupied with whether or not they can vs team thinking if they should
I think its unethical to cause an animal to go extinct on purpose.
Counterpoint: guinea worm, a nightmarish human parasite with possible mentions back to ancient Egypt. As of the mid 1980’s, it infected millions every year. Now it is on the verge of extinction due to a very concerted international effort. All those little worms were doing was causing intense physical suffering for humans and other animals.
Yeah, if we let them live, people suffer and die. If we make them extinct some bugs will die ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Seems like we could somehow try to genetically engineer their bites to not itch at least
I still don’t want those disease vectors biting me and giving me space Zika.
If they didn’t itch I wouldn’t really care that they eat me, aside from passing on diseases. Or when one gets into the bedroom and keeps waking you up by buzzing in your ear randomly…
Since 1990, 90% of the insexts dissapeared. So yeah let exterminate more.
Source?
90% PERCENT OF THE INSEXTS
Not exactly how OP put it, but still pretty alarming stuff here
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GLOBAL-ENVIRONMENT/INSECT-APOCALYPSE/egpbykdxjvq/
Bonus doom & gloom
That sounds odd to me, since that’s about when the DDT ban was really going into force worldwide. The resurgence of bedbugs in the US has been linked to our no longer using DDT.
Hear me out. Mosquito laser fence. I think we have a few years before the patent expires.
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/08/laser-zap-that-mosquito/
I was thinking this too, apparently not a new idea.
That’s a new article. Sweet! Thanks for sharing
I’ll go with mosquitoes after and just after getting done of all the fucking cockroaches
Same, I fucking despise and fear cockroaches, so much, I hate them, I cannot live in a place with even a few cockroaches, I pray every day they die out
deleted by creator
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.
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 think about this all the time.
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 compare us more to mold growth on a piece of stale bread, the bread being the earth…
