7 ms·

I don’t know about ticks and fleas, but can we all agree to just fucking eradicate aedes aegypti and the 30 or so species of mosquitos which bite humans? They a

by zaroth 9y ago

I don’t know about ticks and fleas, but can we all agree to just fucking eradicate aedes aegypti and the 30 or so species of mosquitos which bite humans? They are literally the most dangerous thing (to humans) on the planet. Responsible for spreading diseases which have killed more humans than any other cause (including all wars) throughout human history. We can leave the remaining ~3,500 species of mosquitos—which don’t bite humans—alone.

rubicon33 9y ago
I would instantly quit my job and join any company who's mission was to eradicate mosquitos. Shit, I'm an engineer but if they were full on engineers and short on janitors I'd do that just to be a part of a team doing that work.
- mrfusion 9y ago
  I’ve got a bunch of ideas on cheap, simple mosquito traps. I’m just not sure where to start. Patents? If anyone wants to help, get in touch. Edit I guess I should build some prototypes as a first step.
  - gschier 9y ago
    Ideas aren't worth much. Go build some prototypes and get the thing out there :)
  - ryanseys 9y ago
    Do it! I've seen videos floating around E.g. [0] that are as simple as a giant fan that sucks in mosquitoes. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ
  - atomical 9y ago
    Do you have any plans for a Crispr gene drive to wipe them out?
- ryanseys 9y ago
  We're hiring! [0] At Verily we have a project that is doing exactly that called Debug [1] where we are initially focused on Aedes aegypti. We already have started deploying our mosquitoes out in the field. Disclaimer: I'm a Software Engineer at Verily, though my main focus is on Baseline / Clinical Studies, however I helped build the website for Debug which was fun. Let me know if you have any questions! [0]: https://verily.com/roles/#open-roles https://verily.com/roles/#open-roles [1]: https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/
  - samstave 9y ago
    What function in the general food-chain do these critters fulfill? What are the implications upstream in the chain should that, perhaps, food-base cause to the rest should they be eradicated. They suck for humans, but what % of a critical link are they to their immediate neighbors along the chain?
    - zaroth 9y ago
      The vast majority of mosquito species do not eat humans. The 1% of mosquito species which do can fuck off and die, as they’re literally responsible for killing tens of billions of humans. Seriously, we do a lot of damage to this world, but eradicating human blood suckers wouldn’t be one of them.
      - newnewpdro 9y ago
        You could just move somewhere mosquitoes don't thrive. Being regularly annoyed by mosquitoes is personally a distant memory, and I would not be in support of any attempt to eradicate them.
        Retric 9y ago
        Mosquitoes thrive as far north as Alaska. The risks drop outside the tropics, but essentially every human on the planet gets bitten at some point.
        9y ago
- paulcole 9y ago
  Just curious which of the roles at Verily you’d be applying to?
jMyles 9y ago
> They are literally the most dangerous thing (to humans) on the planet. Automobiles, sugary foods, an opiods would like a word. But yes, in terms of threats from other animals, they're at the top of the list. edit: Holy heck with the instant downvotes. Look: I'm not trying to downplay the threat of malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Malaria is the #9 cause of death in developing nations today and totally worth the efforts to fight it. But it's also true that, if you get in a car or live around cars, they are more likely to kill you than a mosquito. Heart disease (which I'm representing here with the phrase "sugary foods" obviously) kills more people everywhere on earth than malaria, including developing nations. So depending on how we define "the most dangerous thing", it's not entirely crazy to say that the mosquito isn't it.
- saagarjha 9y ago
  Uh, no. Mosquitos have killed around 50% of humans that have ever lived through malaria.
  - filesystemdude 9y ago
    [Citation needed]
    - saagarjha 9y ago
      > Plasmodium, in all likelihood has been responsible for the death of about half of all people who ever lived From the abstract of this paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16250876 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16250876
  - jMyles 9y ago
    Well, it's not clear that that's true in the first place[0]. But even if it is, it's certainly not the case today. It's not in the top-10 causes of death at the moment. If we limit the scope to developing nations only, it's #9, which is huge, but still killing less than half the number that heart disease does. Furthermore, most mosquitoes don't carry malaria, but all sugary foods are capable of causing heart disease if consumed in excess. So it's not unfair to say that sugary foods are more dangerous to humans than mosquitoes. 0: http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-killed-half-the-people-who-have-ever-lived/ http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-killed-half-the-people-...
codazoda 9y ago
Latin America got close in the 50's and 60's, only to see them return when efforts let up. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mosquitoes/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/02/05/heal... Edit: I hate Amp but don't know, at a glance, how to get the full URL.
- myroon5 9y ago
  non-amp url: https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mosquitoes/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mo...
- chimeracoder 9y ago
  > Edit: I hate Amp but don't know, at a glance, how to get the full URL. What is the difference between the two for you? I'm on a desktop, and both the AMP and the non-AMP version look literally identical - somewhat mobile-optimized, but not particularly.
  - chrischen 9y ago
    For me the AMP url simply redirects to the non-amp on desktop.
colordrops 9y ago
Every creature in an ecosystem serves some niche and is part of a very complex balance, and willful eradication of an entire species is extremely irresponsible in that no one can know every consequence.
- tytytytytytytyt 9y ago
  I thought scientists agreed that wasn't true for the mosquitoes that bite us.
  - kadenshep 9y ago
    As far as we know*, which is a pretty substantial disclaimer.
- lifeformed 9y ago
  On the other hand, letting them live is disastrous too. Malaria has killed half of all people who have ever lived. Also, we unintentionally destroy a lot of species every year, often with little direct consequence to humans, so destruction of another one isn't necessarily ecologically disastrous. Of course, it could still be a bad idea, and we shouldn't do it without sufficient research, but the option to do shouldn't be dismissed outright.
  - fooker 9y ago
    Maybe without that humans would have overpopulated the earth and driven everything to extinction much quicker that what is happening now?
  - soundwave106 9y ago
    The issue with most current mosquito control (https://www.wired.com/2016/06/zika-mosquitos/ https://www.wired.com/2016/06/zika-mosquitos/) and actually most insect control in general is that, historically and even heavily today, they generally involved chemicals (pesticides). Pesticides in general are not insect specific, and can have some rather serious effects on the environment, other animals, and even maybe humans. They also only tend to be effective against mosquitoes for, say, a couple decades or so before mosquitoes develop resistance, and a new one has to be deployed. I definitely would personally welcome research on efforts to more specifically target the mosquito and the mosquito alone. Chemical based insect control isn't going to go away in the absence of alternatives, meaning that, should an alternative, mosquito specific approach be developed, it probably will have much less "knock on effects" to the ecosystem compared to what we are already doing.
neves 9y ago
A nice debate about it: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos-180959069/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos...
quantum_magpie 9y ago
The world needs some sort of self-defense mechanism from the biggest parasite of the planet -- human. With significantly diminished mortality due to intra-species conflict, the various epidemics seem to be the only viable way.
atomical 9y ago
> We can leave the remaining ~3,500 species of mosquitos—which don’t bite humans—alone. Runner here. No thanks. I would like to run in peace.

by zaroth 9y ago

rubicon33 9y ago

I would instantly quit my job and join any company who's mission was to eradicate mosquitos. Shit, I'm an engineer but if they were full on engineers and short on janitors I'd do that just to be a part of a team doing that work.

mrfusion 9y ago
I’ve got a bunch of ideas on cheap, simple mosquito traps. I’m just not sure where to start. Patents? If anyone wants to help, get in touch. Edit I guess I should build some prototypes as a first step.
- gschier 9y ago
  Ideas aren't worth much. Go build some prototypes and get the thing out there :)
- ryanseys 9y ago
  Do it! I've seen videos floating around E.g. [0] that are as simple as a giant fan that sucks in mosquitoes. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhV-o77RqQ
- atomical 9y ago
  Do you have any plans for a Crispr gene drive to wipe them out?
ryanseys 9y ago
We're hiring! [0] At Verily we have a project that is doing exactly that called Debug [1] where we are initially focused on Aedes aegypti. We already have started deploying our mosquitoes out in the field. Disclaimer: I'm a Software Engineer at Verily, though my main focus is on Baseline / Clinical Studies, however I helped build the website for Debug which was fun. Let me know if you have any questions! [0]: https://verily.com/roles/#open-roles https://verily.com/roles/#open-roles [1]: https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/
- samstave 9y ago
  What function in the general food-chain do these critters fulfill? What are the implications upstream in the chain should that, perhaps, food-base cause to the rest should they be eradicated. They suck for humans, but what % of a critical link are they to their immediate neighbors along the chain?
  - zaroth 9y ago
    The vast majority of mosquito species do not eat humans. The 1% of mosquito species which do can fuck off and die, as they’re literally responsible for killing tens of billions of humans. Seriously, we do a lot of damage to this world, but eradicating human blood suckers wouldn’t be one of them.
    - newnewpdro 9y ago
      You could just move somewhere mosquitoes don't thrive. Being regularly annoyed by mosquitoes is personally a distant memory, and I would not be in support of any attempt to eradicate them.
      - Retric 9y ago
        Mosquitoes thrive as far north as Alaska. The risks drop outside the tropics, but essentially every human on the planet gets bitten at some point.
      - 9y ago
paulcole 9y ago
Just curious which of the roles at Verily you’d be applying to?

jMyles 9y ago

> They are literally the most dangerous thing (to humans) on the planet. Automobiles, sugary foods, an opiods would like a word. But yes, in terms of threats from other animals, they're at the top of the list. edit: Holy heck with the instant downvotes. Look: I'm not trying to downplay the threat of malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Malaria is the #9 cause of death in developing nations today and totally worth the efforts to fight it. But it's also true that, if you get in a car or live around cars, they are more likely to kill you than a mosquito. Heart disease (which I'm representing here with the phrase "sugary foods" obviously) kills more people everywhere on earth than malaria, including developing nations. So depending on how we define "the most dangerous thing", it's not entirely crazy to say that the mosquito isn't it.

saagarjha 9y ago
Uh, no. Mosquitos have killed around 50% of humans that have ever lived through malaria.
- filesystemdude 9y ago
  [Citation needed]
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    > Plasmodium, in all likelihood has been responsible for the death of about half of all people who ever lived From the abstract of this paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16250876 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16250876
- jMyles 9y ago
  Well, it's not clear that that's true in the first place[0]. But even if it is, it's certainly not the case today. It's not in the top-10 causes of death at the moment. If we limit the scope to developing nations only, it's #9, which is huge, but still killing less than half the number that heart disease does. Furthermore, most mosquitoes don't carry malaria, but all sugary foods are capable of causing heart disease if consumed in excess. So it's not unfair to say that sugary foods are more dangerous to humans than mosquitoes. 0: http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-killed-half-the-people-who-have-ever-lived/ http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-killed-half-the-people-...

codazoda 9y ago

Latin America got close in the 50's and 60's, only to see them return when efforts let up. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mosquitoes/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/02/05/heal... Edit: I hate Amp but don't know, at a glance, how to get the full URL.

myroon5 9y ago
non-amp url: https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mosquitoes/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/health/zika-virus-kill-all-mo...
chimeracoder 9y ago
> Edit: I hate Amp but don't know, at a glance, how to get the full URL. What is the difference between the two for you? I'm on a desktop, and both the AMP and the non-AMP version look literally identical - somewhat mobile-optimized, but not particularly.
- chrischen 9y ago
  For me the AMP url simply redirects to the non-amp on desktop.

colordrops 9y ago

Every creature in an ecosystem serves some niche and is part of a very complex balance, and willful eradication of an entire species is extremely irresponsible in that no one can know every consequence.

tytytytytytytyt 9y ago
I thought scientists agreed that wasn't true for the mosquitoes that bite us.
- kadenshep 9y ago
  As far as we know*, which is a pretty substantial disclaimer.
lifeformed 9y ago
On the other hand, letting them live is disastrous too. Malaria has killed half of all people who have ever lived. Also, we unintentionally destroy a lot of species every year, often with little direct consequence to humans, so destruction of another one isn't necessarily ecologically disastrous. Of course, it could still be a bad idea, and we shouldn't do it without sufficient research, but the option to do shouldn't be dismissed outright.
- fooker 9y ago
  Maybe without that humans would have overpopulated the earth and driven everything to extinction much quicker that what is happening now?
- soundwave106 9y ago
  The issue with most current mosquito control (https://www.wired.com/2016/06/zika-mosquitos/ https://www.wired.com/2016/06/zika-mosquitos/) and actually most insect control in general is that, historically and even heavily today, they generally involved chemicals (pesticides). Pesticides in general are not insect specific, and can have some rather serious effects on the environment, other animals, and even maybe humans. They also only tend to be effective against mosquitoes for, say, a couple decades or so before mosquitoes develop resistance, and a new one has to be deployed. I definitely would personally welcome research on efforts to more specifically target the mosquito and the mosquito alone. Chemical based insect control isn't going to go away in the absence of alternatives, meaning that, should an alternative, mosquito specific approach be developed, it probably will have much less "knock on effects" to the ecosystem compared to what we are already doing.

neves 9y ago

A nice debate about it: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos-180959069/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos...

quantum_magpie 9y ago

The world needs some sort of self-defense mechanism from the biggest parasite of the planet -- human. With significantly diminished mortality due to intra-species conflict, the various epidemics seem to be the only viable way.

atomical 9y ago

> We can leave the remaining ~3,500 species of mosquitos—which don’t bite humans—alone. Runner here. No thanks. I would like to run in peace.