Wouldn't mosquito predators effectively die off as well? Birds, larger bugs, bats, etc.
Most mosquitoes don't bite humans; we will leave those alone. Birds can eat those all they like.
Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
121–130 of 441 posts
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#122Serious question: In areas where Malaria is killing many people, access to health care is a big part of why, right? So I'm assuming if you just removed the mosquitos, those people that died would be alive, and putting greater strain on already famine-like food economies. Wouldn't that be equally as bad?
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/Resources-and-Medi...
See the third section in that link.
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#123Most of the "whoops" tales are people that didn't listen to their scientists telling them not to, didn't have scientists at all, or were from long enough ago that we can discard their stories as irrelevant in the same way that we'd discard things like "spaceflight is impossible" and "nukes will end war". We've now traced the food chain around malaria mosquitoes out to three or four degrees of separation, including th…
Layman here.
Even if the impact on the food chain is zero, does it mean that there won't be other impacts?
For example, on the eradication of mosquitoes, what if the disease that are currently only spread via mosquitoes mutate/evolve themselves to be airborne?
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#124[deleted]
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#125I'm disappointed that the prevailing sentiment is applying the precautionary principle. We didn't create a technological civilization by being absolutely sure of all possible consequences before acting. That approach would have paralyzed us. Technology is a boon. It's done some harm, but a whole lot of good. Let's not throw up our hands and decide that we're no longer comfortable modifying our environment to suit us.
There is a long list of things about our technological civilization that would have benefited from applying the precautionary principle a little more. We're in damage control mode right now for a large number of environmental catastrophes, our agricultural techniques of the last half-century or so have depleted and desertified a large amount of prime arable land, we're rapidly shooting ourselves in the foot by abusing antibiotics, and we have some huge problems with war, poverty, and other kinds of social strife. In my opinion, we should be learning to think deeply through consequences instead of looking at our track record and saying "let's do more of that." We don't need to be absolutely sure, but given our history I think we could probably strive to be /more/ sure before we make irreversible changes.
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#126Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#127The only comments I see here seem to be taking the the article literally, but I have a strong suspicion that it's largely a parody of the Trump/Cruz talk talk on the Middle East, ISIS, and Islam.
> The ugly situation on the ground does not call for Integrated Mosquito Management; it demands a program of Total Mosquito Destruction.
and
> we’re left to wait and watch swarms of evil on the wing, mating in midair, and landing on our shores. An enemy has made its way to the nation’s borders. Now is not the time for soft responses.
(and more)
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is MBTE really specific to only A. gambiae and A. funestus?
Something like 30 out of the 500 anopheles species are capable of carrying malaria. Of those, only those two matter, because the rest won't bite humans. Eradicating those two would be sufficient and another species (that doesn't bite humans) would take over. "Bites Humans" is furthermore not a strong enough competitive advantage to overcome any attempts to eradicate a successor that picks up the disease-ridden malari…
Look at this problem from different angle. These two species are only abundant in areas where humans live. The malaria annual death toll is about 440000 lives. Maybe it is more worth of an effort to move humans out of there?
Since no one is going to eradicate cars worldwide just because the annual human death toll in car accidents is 1.25 million!
Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#129Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't things eat mosquitos? Do any of those things matter?
lol, did you even read the article? There’s little evidence, though, that mosquitoes form a crucial link in any food chain, or that their niche could not be filled by something else.
This little evidence comes from little research.