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I've heard that mosquitoes are believed to be completely replaceable in the food chain of the various species which prey upon them. Considering how mosquitoes a

I've heard that mosquitoes are believed to be completely replaceable in the food chain of the various species which prey upon them. Considering how mosquitoes are a vector for _numerous_ diseases, malaria being the most deadly but still one of many, what's stopping research into eradicating mosquitoes entirely? A lack of research and surety on the overall effect on the ecosystem? Honestly, fuck mosquitoes. If the mosquito laser system were ever actually viable/purchasable, I'd happily drop thousands of dollars to keep those bastards out of my bedroom at night.

trianglem 6y ago
Not to take away too much focus from this issue, but we gotta start talking about ticks in the same vein.
- KerryJones 6y ago
  Seriously -- I didn't realize how bad it could get until I got to Vienna and a local told me that residents of the city are required to be inoculated against ticks because they can make you brain dead, epilepsy, etc, and I didn't believe it... but it's real https://www.iamat.org/country/austria/risk/tick-borne-encephalitis https://www.iamat.org/country/austria/risk/tick-borne-enceph...
- mikeappell 6y ago
  No clue how important they are in the ecosystem, but from the perspective of insects which piss me off, I'm on board 100%.
  - cc81 6y ago
    I read somewhere that they are not important and that is good enough source for me. It could have been written on a post-it for me to support an eradication campaign. I hate ticks.
    - chr1 6y ago
      There is a joke that ticks and lice were crucial for human evolution, since removing them from each other helped to make monkeys spend time together:)
klyrs 6y ago
They're also extremely important pollinators -- their role in the ecosystem isn't just bat food. https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-bizarre-and-ecologically-important-hidden-lives-of-mosquitoes/ https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/th...
- empthought 6y ago
  This article is hot garbage. The specific mosquito (Anopheles) that transmits malaria plays no special role in any ecosystem that can’t be filled by another species. They have been doing this research for years now, and yet this author didn’t cite any of it.
  - diggernet 6y ago
    And, in most places, is an invasive species.
chr1 6y ago
There is a hope that gene-drive targeting doublesex gene can be effective in eliminating mosquitos (and likely other insect species if we want) https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4245 https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4245. There have been many articles about this on HN last year, but there was also a depressingly large number of people commenting how precious mosquitos are, and that the maximum measure we are allowed to consider is modifying mosquitoes to not transmit malaria, and that even thinking of eliminating "the whole species" is a sin.
andrewflnr 6y ago
Aren't there lots of mosquitoes that don't transmit deadly diseases, or don't bite humans at all? They're not going to go away as a category even if we did eradicate anopheles et al. I mean, do the research to find out if they're some plant's sole pollinators, but otherwise I can't see anything to lose.
mqlkib 6y ago
For anybody, who thinks "mosquito laser system" was only a made up phantasy - no, it was a real attempt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser

trianglem 6y ago

Not to take away too much focus from this issue, but we gotta start talking about ticks in the same vein.

KerryJones 6y ago
Seriously -- I didn't realize how bad it could get until I got to Vienna and a local told me that residents of the city are required to be inoculated against ticks because they can make you brain dead, epilepsy, etc, and I didn't believe it... but it's real https://www.iamat.org/country/austria/risk/tick-borne-encephalitis https://www.iamat.org/country/austria/risk/tick-borne-enceph...
mikeappell 6y ago
No clue how important they are in the ecosystem, but from the perspective of insects which piss me off, I'm on board 100%.
- cc81 6y ago
  I read somewhere that they are not important and that is good enough source for me. It could have been written on a post-it for me to support an eradication campaign. I hate ticks.
  - chr1 6y ago
    There is a joke that ticks and lice were crucial for human evolution, since removing them from each other helped to make monkeys spend time together:)

klyrs 6y ago

They're also extremely important pollinators -- their role in the ecosystem isn't just bat food. https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-bizarre-and-ecologically-important-hidden-lives-of-mosquitoes/ https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/th...

empthought 6y ago
This article is hot garbage. The specific mosquito (Anopheles) that transmits malaria plays no special role in any ecosystem that can’t be filled by another species. They have been doing this research for years now, and yet this author didn’t cite any of it.
- diggernet 6y ago
  And, in most places, is an invasive species.

chr1 6y ago

There is a hope that gene-drive targeting doublesex gene can be effective in eliminating mosquitos (and likely other insect species if we want) https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4245 https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4245. There have been many articles about this on HN last year, but there was also a depressingly large number of people commenting how precious mosquitos are, and that the maximum measure we are allowed to consider is modifying mosquitoes to not transmit malaria, and that even thinking of eliminating "the whole species" is a sin.

andrewflnr 6y ago

Aren't there lots of mosquitoes that don't transmit deadly diseases, or don't bite humans at all? They're not going to go away as a category even if we did eradicate anopheles et al. I mean, do the research to find out if they're some plant's sole pollinators, but otherwise I can't see anything to lose.

mqlkib 6y ago

For anybody, who thinks "mosquito laser system" was only a made up phantasy - no, it was a real attempt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser