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Given that centipedes are not insects, I guess the most respected insect on earth are Scottish midges.
Iceland was mosquito free before and I missed it???
Fuck mosquitoes. I’m okay extincting them even if there’s collateral damage to the ecosystem.
Suffer not the mosquito to live and bring on the exterminatus.
Add ticks to the list.
Tbf, we dont have to get rid of them all… most dont interact with humans at all. Also, we could just GMO them to find as not tasty and continue to exist without being harmful.
How much did the mosquitos pay you to say that?
Great…I’ll never escape them now.
Hope we can find some ways to get rid of these fuckers, they really are getting worse everywhere I’ve realized.
I’m not in favor of eradicating them from wild areas but there’s no reason they need to be in cities.
I don’t understand how a flying insect can be kept out of an area. Do you have a strategy in mind?
It’s not completely possible but if you could create a situation where mortality is so high or reproduction is impossible for them, you could keep populations very low even if some wander in.
They have genetically modified mosquitoes that cause sterility in the ones they mate with, which have been used successfully to greatly reduce the population of the species in question. So this is the best existing technology IMO but it probably will require a confluence of techniques.
But care should be taken that it doesn’t harm non-target organisms and doesn’t spread out of control.
I think that would wipe out the target species if it were effective. I know they have GMO mosquitoes whose bodies will kill particular pathogens rather than spread them, and I feel like that’s a safer idea. But maybe the species which target humans aren’t ecologically important; I don’t really know.
It only wipes them out in the area of release. Because they’re sterile, they can’t spread to other regions.
From what I’ve seen they’ve only been used on introduced mosquito species which are less likely to have much impact on native ecosystems anyway. Most of the mosquitoes that live in cities are introduced cosmopolitan species.
Because they’re sterile, they can’t spread to other regions.
That really should have been obvious, lol.
We got saints out here infecting mosquitos with strerility bless them
Don’t you maybe think that humans eradicating shit in favour of cities is part of the whole dang pawblem we’re facing?? 🤪
For sure. That’s why we need to densify our cities to stop them from expanding. But that’s a separate question from whether it’s worth it to have mosquitoes in existing cities. I don’t think it is but if you have an argument for it go ahead.
But the vast majority of urban mosquitoes are introduced species anyway.
And eradicating mosquitoes is going to help with that how exactly?
Improved human health and well-being in cities certainly couldn’t hurt. But it’s not really meant to be part of that strategy. It’s more to prevent human suffering and death from disease.
human suffering
Right, so we should also eradicate all human predators to prevent human suffering at all, yeah?
death from disease
Malaria (and other diseases) can be eliminated. If you’re in a western country, when is the last time you heard of someone (in your country) having it? Did they travel recently before* the infection?
We have West Nile that can kill people, and many other dangerous mosquito borne illnesses are expanding.
Predators have other effective methods to prevent them from killing people.
But I mean I don’t really think it would be appropriate to have lions in major cities either, so you? Unless measures could be developed to coexist and keep people safe.
If you’re really passionate about mosquitoes existing in cities for some reason and can develop alternatives that keep people safe then go for it. But despite decades of work on this topic, we’re not there yet and killing mosquitoes remains an important part of disease control in most parts of the world. The way Malaria was eliminated from large regions in the first place was through widespread poisoning of mosquitoes, so that example really doesn’t help your case.
killing mosquitoes remains an important part of disease control in most parts of the world.
Which was done without fully studying the ecological impacts. There are studies coming out now showing there are many impacts from doing this.
Edit:
can develop alternatives that keep people safe then go for it.
Permethrin, diethyltoluamide, citronella, bug zappers and mosquito nets already exist and can help you control their presence both on your person and in a localised area.
I weridly pick my own species over others anytime
Yeah, and that’s the whole pawblem with the human race.
How? How did the mosquitoes even get there?
Land on a luggage bag, bag goes on plane, chill in cargo hold until landing, fly out. Exist in puddles on cargo ships until arriving at port. Lots of ways.
