Comment by SamBam
4 years ago
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.
> The ecosystem will adapt.
Sure, but as with climate change, you may not like the result. I guess there's a fair chance that it won't be "just like now, but no mosquito bites". Mosquito larvae are a big source of food for others, and extensively prey on larvae of other species, keeping those in check. Adult mosquitos are important pollinators, too, and as we're currently discovering with bees, taking out an important pollinator has big consequences and while the ecosystems will adapt, it may well end up shedding very desirable species entirely, ecosystems take a long time to bounce back, and may be a lot less appealing to us afterwards.
Frogs and fish might suffer, too, they'll have to make do with a lot less food when you take mosquitos out, and what takes their niche may not be as palatable. You push these below a sustainable population size in an area, you probably lose them entirely, and their function of keeping insect larvae and adult insects in check. Since we'd like to enjoy mosquito-free summers ourselves, and soon, the time scales we'd typically do such interventions on is way too short for much adaptation in vertebrates to take place, generation times even of frogs and small fish are too long for that. You may end up with ponds that are way emptier and more silent, and with lots more creepy crawlies and possibly a long-term balance that has, say, way more rats, roaches, etc.
I’ve been plagued by mosquitoes ever since I quit smoking, I’ve found that heating a spoon with boiling water and pressing it against the bites for as long as you can stand the pain will swiftly deal with the itching. You have to be careful not to burn yourself though!
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I get the feeling but the point is that most mosquitoes do not suck your blood. And the blood sucking ones are just the female mosquitoes of a certain mosquito type and your blood is only meant to help their reproduction. #NotAllMosquitoes
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.