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What are birds going to eat now? asking for a friend.
by digitaltrees 6y ago
What are birds going to eat now? asking for a friend.
- blisterpeanuts 6y agoTell your friend that there are about 5,000 known species of mosquito, of which about 100 feed on mammalian blood, and out of those 9 are disease carriers. If we can target those specific 9 or some subset thereof, like Aedes aegypti as Oxitec is doing, we at least reduce the misery index while preserving 99.9% of the prey items consumed by birds, dragonflies, and other predators. Also, there's at least one study that suggests total eradication of mosquitoes would not harm the ecosystem because of the availability of substitute food sources.
- digitaltrees 6y agoThis is why I love hacker news. Awesome response!