Comment by jschwartzi
4 years ago
Please only do this in artificial bodies of water. There’s an entire food chain of insects and birds and fish which rely on the larvae and adults.
4 years ago
Please only do this in artificial bodies of water. There’s an entire food chain of insects and birds and fish which rely on the larvae and adults.
I've been interested in this question for a while. The Bill Gates-funded science to try and eradicate all mosquitoes always appears founded on the premise that it would cause a ripple effect in the ecosystem. Anyone know if that's justified?
Where I live, we used to have tons of frogs. The city actually built a freeway bypass to prevent too many flat frogs. Didn't work. Anyway, the frogs quickly vanished around the same time we started spraying to reduce the spread of West Nile. Don't know if it was the food source or if the spray killed the tadpoles, but unintended consequences are a thing. A knock-on to that is we now have a growing roach problem.
Many biocides have negative effects on amphibians that go far beyond food supply.
It's never "all mosquitos" it's "all of these 2-3 types (Anopheles) of mosquitoes that are vectors for human pathogens".
The ecosystem impact is still super important to understand, but it's reasonable to think that other mosquitos, or similar insects, could fill the niche left behind.
I'm for eliminating all mosquitos. They are the single most annoying thing about the best time of the year, summer, around here. I want to enjoy it without being harrassed about sucking my blood. The ecosystem will adapt.
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An excellent comment on this topic last time eliminating mosquitos were discussed:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26837319
On the one hand, yes, an excellent comment with some impressive background and credentials.
On the other hand, I'm put off by this rejection of differing viewpoints:
"While contrarianism is a valuable american (and human) trait, in this situation it is misplaced, mis-informed, and dangerous. An educated man's anti-vaxx, if you will."
... which employs a fairly lazy pejorative to dismiss (people that think perhaps we shouldn't eliminate mosquitos).
I believe I quote Will Durant: "The mosquito is the enemy of civilization" and I am intrigued, generally, by the idea of eliminating mosquitos ... but I also adhere to the precautionary principal.
Maybe save a breeding stock and frozen eggs, etc., in case there is some hidden consequence we didn't think of ?
The bacteria probably attack more than just the species that feed on humans, but putting that aside, there's only a handful of species that focus on humans, so disrupting those doesn't necessarily mean disrupting all mosquitoes.
I've only ever done this in places with a high diversity of insects for birds and bats to eat.
Do you know this for sure?