• BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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    2 months ago

    Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every disease ever (edit: when you obviously exclude malaria) along with every war ever, combined.

    Fuck those little shits. Let them all die, it will literally change nothing on this planet because nothing solely survives off predation on mosquitoes or their larvae.

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      But what will happen when the humans lose their natural predators, we might destroy our habita- ah, right. Nevermind

    • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      If those creatures that also eat mosquitoes cannot eat them anymore, that means they would have to eat other bugs more frequently, and possibly fucking up all the ecosystem.

      That said, fuck mosquitoes, they can take blood from other places.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        All of our best data on the impact says that it really wouldn’t matter. Sometimes a species is a linchpin for the ecosystem, and sometimes it isn’t.

        Sucks for mosquitoes, but there’s a very real chance that we’ll smallpox them, and the biggest concern will be our confidence that the virus we use doesn’t impact other species unintentionally.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Haven’t read closely on it, but I’ve seen plenty of articles about the lack of effect we’d see over killing off mosquitoes. I have a feeling that, along with what you said, it’s because they’re tiny.

          Consider the dragonfly. They hunt mosquitoes efficiently. But relative to their size, a mosquito is like us eating a candy bar, or even less. Meanwhile, they could snatch about anything else and it would be like a 3-pound steak.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        2 months ago

        They’re largely applying this technique to invasive species of mosquitoes, eg Aedes aegypti, which is a potent vector of disease and native of Africa that has spread worldwide only within the past 200 years

      • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If we were to somehow magically remove mosquitos from existence in an instant, we’d better hope something fills their ecological niche quickly

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Nothing eats them exclusively, that I know of. And they’re tiny. Any insectivore is getting far more nutrition out of about anything else.

          Maybe I’m wrong, but biologists seem to think eradication is a non-issue.

        • smeg@feddit.uk
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          2 months ago

          I think the purpose of the original genetic modification is to make them unable to bite humans (and spread malaria) but to otherwise leave them capable of feeding, thus not wiping them out and upsetting the ecosystem they’re part of

          • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The niche being food for fish that share their ecosystem in larval stages, and birds/bats/frogs that share their ecosystem in their adult stage.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        They also eat nectar and are pollinators of various plants.

        There’s no way we could simply remove a creature as numerous and widespread as mosquitoes without any consequences.

    • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I understand what you’re saying here, but the set of people killed by “every disease ever” includes the entire set of people killed by mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes can’t have killed more people than every disease ever because mosquitoes’ kill count is part of every disease ever.

    • TheRedSpade@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every disease ever

      How do they kill us outside of spreading disease?