Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say kill them all.
Are you from Buenos Aires?
I’m doing my part!
The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
61–70 of 77 posts
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well thought out, informative. But still, Kill them all. Noseeums too. I literally cannot be outside my house 3 months of the year unless coated in deet, or head to toe netting. I mean literal clouds of them, and the noseeums in my ears, eyes, death. Death to them all. If all of humanity expires for their lack, I care not, if we take them with us. Death to them all.
Add some birdfeeders around your house, and if swallows start to build their nests on your home, let them. I live next to wetlands, but the birds eat the bugs. Swallows specifically eat over 10,000 mosquitoes a day, so if you get them established on your property, it makes a huge difference.
While these kind of suggestions are no doubt intended to be helpful, they come off as ignorant to anyone who has lived in a mosquito-prone area.
Short of living in an actual bat cave, you’ll never get the density of predators required to solve the mosquito problem.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why stop there, if it is even possible to? Hundreds or thousands of species of mosquito, can you genetically target a single one for eradication? And if successful, it's easy to imagine the nuances of different species getting lost in government policies. Compounded by the fact that, maybe aegypti and malaria mosquitos represent an equilibrium that, if disturbed by their genocide...would leave a pathogen-vector v…
We are already wiping out in the order of a species a day, usually in an unplanned, "oops" fashion: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/p... . Killing a few more in a planned, methodical fashion after having evaluated their use and harm won't make a lot of difference. Any big "disturbance of the ecosystems" is either already occuring or will fix itself over time. I think the risks are minimal,…
No I think the difference is that they directly integrate with humans so much. Particularly with the human immune system, pathogen vectors and genetics. Because they suck our blood. It's a pretty unique parasitic relationship--and often the fate of species, both animal and plant, can turn on their parasitic relationships. Perhaps we are not paying the humble mosquito the dues we naturally owe it?
If we press that lever, we might not be able to undo it, and the consequences might be far worse than we (in our limited individual understandings and imaginations, which seem to become even more limited when elaborated through the rubric of public policy) can right now possibly imagine. Sure, it sounds like fear-mongering, and it might be...if they really are useless. But are we so sure? Is it worth it to take that risk?
Consider that air pollution kills ten times (10!) as many as mosquitos. Well, we should just eradicate all fossil fuels. Wipe them from the face of the Earth. But of course, we will not--why? because we see how integrated these disease producing fossil fuels are into our modern energy and supply chains. We see their utility in the 'gross anatomy' of our industrialized civilization clearly. But I think it is not widely appreciated the utility of the mosquito in the much more subtle, but more complex and numerous subtle anatomy of the networks of our ecological and bodily systems. Eradicating them is worse than (the incredibly horrid and stupid hypothetical idea of) say wiping out all gut bacteria in terms of damage, potentially. Anyone who seems eager to take that risk and has the gall to affect society like that with grand statements of "wipe them all out"-- I think is crazy and dangerous. The risk is too great.
Let's find ways to cure/combat the illnesses that don't involve taking out a key transport system in the global biome. It's like saying because crazy people can send letter bombs and con-persons can send fraud, we must execute all postal employees and dismantle all courier companies, if they've ever been misused. Because the internet can carry viruses to your computer, we must sever all submarine cables, and tear down all cell towers. It's sort of a sickness, an overgrowth of desire to use the clever technical genetic tools we can develop to watch as we humans hold the fate of a whole race of things in our hands. Let's use those clever genetic tricks to fight disease not bring the entire infrastructure down, in a fit of intoxication with our own self-importance, finger on the button of destruction, in a rapture of obsession with our very human world-conquering mania.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#64Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are right, and finding data on that is trivial. It is quite foolish to argue against that.
Per year and all-time are different stats
???
You seem to imply that Malaria has killed more humans throughout history than heart disease. Laughably, you do not show any source to back up your statement ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I disagree based on extremely easy to obtain numbers from sources like [1]. Malaria at 200k/year is not even close to Ischaemic heart disease at at about 9M/year. That is an almost 50-fold difference (!). Given that we have experienced an exponential growth in population in the last 100 or so years, I would not be inclined to believe that something in the past has enough weight to shift the numbers in such dramatic way to invert this trend (50 to 1); and that's being VERY generous and assuming that somehow, in the past, for whatever reason, nobody died from heart disease, at all.
If you have a substantial contribution to make please do so and provide data to support your arguments, otherwise, refrain from spreading lies and FUD.
[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-...
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the number one cause of death in humans was heart disease?
In countries where the main problem is an overabundance of food, where people live a long time, then yes, heart disease is the #1 killer. For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue.
>For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue.
>not. much. of. an. issue.
Sorry but I can only laugh at that statement. Do you live in a different "world", by chance?
Where I live (Earth, third planet from the sun) heart related conditions are always leading causes of death, even in poor countries.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quebec, Canada. Noseeums, as someone else said, are near invisible. They leave rashes, suck blood, can transmit disease. The ones here (there are countless species) leave rashes which take weeks to go away. If you've ever been bit by a deer fly, it's the same thing, except these are super tiny. They literally use their jaws to slice a hole in your skin, and suck the blood up. They also love to suck water and salt fro…
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. - Aliens In Oklahoma my wife got bit by some kind of flying thing that left blood running down her leg.
The nuke idea sounds appealing, they're worse than those aliens. At least you can shoot aliens, noseeums just get blown away as you try to swat them.
I bet the thing was a massive deer fly, there are loads of varieties, here the yellow coloured ones bite your ankles/legs.
Or maybe a bot fly, trying to lay eggs? Google bot flies for a whole new round of horror.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are already wiping out in the order of a species a day, usually in an unplanned, "oops" fashion: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/p... . Killing a few more in a planned, methodical fashion after having evaluated their use and harm won't make a lot of difference. Any big "disturbance of the ecosystems" is either already occuring or will fix itself over time. I think the risks are minimal,…
No I think the difference is that they directly integrate with humans so much. Particularly with the human immune system, pathogen vectors and genetics. Because they suck our blood. It's a pretty unique parasitic relationship--and often the fate of species, both animal and plant, can turn on their parasitic relationships. Perhaps we are not paying the humble mosquito the dues we naturally owe it? If we press that lev…
There is a tried and proven modern way to do what you claim moskitos are important for: vaccinations.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well thought out, informative. But still, Kill them all. Noseeums too. I literally cannot be outside my house 3 months of the year unless coated in deet, or head to toe netting. I mean literal clouds of them, and the noseeums in my ears, eyes, death. Death to them all. If all of humanity expires for their lack, I care not, if we take them with us. Death to them all.
Deet? Tiger mosquitoes in my home region don't care about it, I sprayed heavily my shoes and legs with Deet based repellent and within 5min, I had these fuckers trying to bite through my shoes! And I could see them feeding on mint flowers as well.
Try 3M Ultrathon. Or go 100% DEET if you haven't tried it already.
I'll take the inevitable "oops, DEET causes horrible cancer" news report in the future for clouds of Asian Tiger mosquitoes surrounding but not landing on me, please.
Re: The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
In countries where the main problem is an overabundance of food, where people live a long time, then yes, heart disease is the #1 killer. For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue.
>For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue. >not. much. of. an. issue. Sorry but I can only laugh at that statement. Do you live in a different "world", by chance? Where I live (Earth, third planet from the sun) heart related conditions are always leading causes of death, even in poor countries.
> Do you live in a different "world", by chance?
Do you make a habit of belittling when making your points?
>not. much. of. an. issue.
If you are going to quote me, please quote me, don't add extra text that I didn't write.
> heart related conditions are always leading causes of death, even in poor countries.
OK, I picked Nigeria out of a hat. It is a large country so the statistics should be pretty stable and has a diversity of rural and urban populations.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1122916/main-causes-of-d...
If you don't want to click, the short of it is: neonatal (12%), malaria (12%), diarrhea (11%), lower respiratory infection (11%), HIV/AIDS (5%), heart disease (4.4%)
Your claim that it is always the #1 killer is disproven. Are there poor countries where heart disease is #1. For sure. But you shouldn't be sneering at my statement.