5 ms·
Beyond your question of ecological impact of killing all mosquitoes, as others mentioned they don't all need to be killed. Historically, South Florida engaged
by will_brown 10y ago
Beyond your question of ecological impact of killing all mosquitoes, as others mentioned they don't all need to be killed.
Historically, South Florida engaged in annual mosquitoe controlling campaigns. Essentially aerial spraying during the Summer. These were stopped because of the budget cuts related to the collapse of the Florida housing market.
Not only did the mosquitoes become intolerable, but before Zika we had a breakout of mosquitoe transmitted Dengue fever. Moreover, the historical mosquitoe controlling never killed all mosquitoes but the were effective in preventing breakouts like Dengue Fever and Zika.
- JosephHatfield 10y agoWhen I was growing up along the Indian River in Florida, they used to send trucks through the neighborhood on summer nights that sent out huge clouds of mosquito killing fog. <s>I'm sure that was perfectly safe.</s>
- will_brown 10y agoI go up there to Hutchinson Island every Summer, at night on the Beach the sand flys (no-see-umps) are absolutely brutal.
- nsxwolf 10y agoWhen the tourism industry screams loudly enough they will find the cash for the spraying.
- chiph 10y agoI doubt they'll bring back DDT spraying programs. But there's no question it was effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT