this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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Just a guess... they're probably a food source low in the chain. Disrupt the food chain and we're screwed.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what-purposes-do-mosquitoes-serve-in-ecosystems
Their eggs are a rich snack for fish. The reason they're a rich snack is because their mom sucked blood.
That said, we can probably kill off the one species that causes malaria. Other species will move into the gap.
Well there's like 30 species and only 4 that hurt humans, so mosquitoes can stay, but those specific 4 can die off.
There's one specific species that causes malaria. Getting rid of that particular one would probably do more good than harm. Their place on the food chain can be filled in by others.
But if they fill in the place in the food chain, that also means they need to be snacking on us.
And I'm not just saying that to be a smart-ass. If humans were a different species, we'd call them horrendously invasive, awful for local ecosystems and that it's really important that their numbers are kept in check, or whatever other euphemisms there are.
No, I don't want to suggest that we should leave humans to die, but we should be aware that it's not as simple as just saving a few lives. We will run into different problems sooner rather than later.
Even better, there's thousands of mosquito species, and only 4 that bit humans
Those 4 can fuck right off into extinction
Exactly.
Everything I've read suggests that mosquitoes aren't a primary food source for anything, and that their absence would be relatively easily adusted for by those creatures that do eat them. Still, that's a hell of a dice roll.
Edit: And apparently that may be wrong anyway.
I have argued for the same caution every single time this came up on Reddit, because I know of a dozen examples in history where we fucked up something similar.
I got downvoted every single time, across several posts over the years, because obviously the hive mind believes things will be different this time! The thing that males me confident it'll fail is I've never seen, and nobody's ever provided, an example where this type of ecological engineering has actually succeeded for the better.
The biggest reason it may be different this time is previously we were all like, "let's exterminate dogs," and it turns out dogs are important. This time is more like "let's exterminate pitbulls." There will still be plenty of mosquitos around if the plan is ever put into motion, we are only targeting a very small slice of them. That doesn't mean there won't be issues, it could well be just as big a mistake as all the previous times. But at least it is more likely to work out.
I can kill off mosquitoes and spiders in the same go? smashes that mosquito-nuke button so hard that it's shattered to dust
Mosquitos aren't some special niche. Take out mosquitos and something else moves in to replace them, something that doesn't bite.
There's nothing that solely depends on mosquitos, and wouldn't prefer to eat other things which mosquitos may be suppressing by existing themselves.
It's impressive that almost every single sentence that you wrote is incorrect.
“But bitey”
If we could we’d try to kill algae and plankton for turning the oceans green and ruining our pictures. We’re not a smart group, us.
To be fair, mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal to humans because of disease spread. It's not just annoying, itchy bites.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/08/nx-s1-5026612/mosquitos-kill-more-people-than-any-other-creature-the-cdc-warns
It’s true and I get that just that we can’t go eradicating one of the bases of most terrestial ecosystems based on that.
Clearly you haven't tried yet. Where's Bob the builder at?
Maybe that's their purpose? Human population control? LOL!
Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every single war ever conducted by humans since the dawn of time, combined.
Kid named Malaria: