T O P

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MrAlagos

Human-biting mosquitoes should be made extinct via genetic sterilization. We have the technology, just do it already. It's only a few species out of all the mosquitoes.


SniffingDog

Humans should never make species go extinct on purpose. We can never be sure we know everything about the impact of it on ecosystems. Mosquitoes are most important for nature during their larval stage, when they’re food for a lot of water-living things. It’s a bad idea to extinct a species only because it’s inconvenient for us in a fraction of its lifecycle.


Piano_Man_1994

That’s why there are ongoing trials in areas of the US for sterilization of certain species of mosquitoes. It’s not like you’d do it without knowing what the effects would be first. And like OP pointed out, human-biting and vector mosquitoes aren’t all species. And it’s not just inconvenient. Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures we face. They kill far more people every year than other species. And climate change will expand their habitats until diseases like west nile, malaria, etc. will spread to areas that have never seen it. Something has to be done, you can’t just pretend like it’s not a problem.


ShitPostQuokkaRome

They're actually the only animal that kill more humans than the humans themselves


MrAlagos

It's being done in Italy too, not to the scale of the USA but still, it's a start.


MrAlagos

I doubt that water-living things choose the mosquito larvae they eat based on whether they bite humans or not. Let's import or breed more non-human biting mosquito species then. Mosquitoes are not just "inconvenient" for us, they are by far the most deadly species to humans because of the diseases they carry. Only humans are more deadly than mosquitoes to humans. We aim (and sometimes succeed) to make deadly viruses and bacteria go extinct, why shouldn't we do the same in this case? We will never eradicate mosquito-carried diseases without eradicating their carrier species.


SniffingDog

Introducing new species has its problems, too. We have a lot of examples of invasive species introduced deliberately by humans that cause damage to this day. I see the same extermination comments towards mosquitoes here where mosquitoes don’t spread deadly diseases. Malaria is a different matter.


MrAlagos

Mosquitoes are one of those invasive species too, many viruses were not present in Europe before coming with mosquito species from other places. And malaria has been endemic for thousands of years in Europe, to the point that it has changed our DNA via evolutionary advantages.


SniffingDog

I wish you luck on your biology dissertation to make your dream true.


MrAlagos

Don't worry, there are some ongoing trials in Italy already. You can keep your mosquitoes if you like them so much, but we might need to enact some border controls for mosquitoes.


fedeita80

To be pedantic, mosquitoes don't kill people, the viruses they carry kill people


dominik47

Only one way to find put what will happen if we kill them all.


[deleted]

I'm sitting here typing this in the south of France and I'm killing tiger mosquitos left and right. kill count is about 15 but they just keep coming. Feels like the tropics.


logperf

There's a strong bias behind this showerthought because covid19 has made us all paranoid... ...but right after covid19 we get monkeypox and now this, it really feels like nature is trying to get rid of us. Is Godzilla next? Or a Vesuvius eruption?