4 ms·
Ooof. Believe it or not, the balance of nature depends on them. What would dragon flies eat? What would endangered birds that eat dragonflies eat? Some animal
by exabrial 6y ago
Ooof.
Believe it or not, the balance of nature depends on them. What would dragon flies eat? What would endangered birds that eat dragonflies eat?
Some animal populations are _only_ constrained by their food supply and disease vectors in the environment. For instance, local deer populations, where human's have eradicated their predators, quickly spiral out of control unless hunting permits can be issued in number to keep the populations in check.
Eradication isn't a good goal, but perhaps rebalancing is and removing those that spread deadly cross-species diseases.
- tmountain 6y agoI believe this argument has been mostly refuted in the scientific community. Here's an excerpt from a Forbes article on the topic: What are the risks of eradicating mosquitoes? As you noticed, there are no keystone species in mosquitoes. No ecosystem depends on any mosquito to the point that it would collapse if they were to disappear. An exception may be the Arctic, but the species there are non-vectors and thus can be left alone. https://tinyurl.com/5bmksuf4 https://tinyurl.com/5bmksuf4
- asymmetric 6y agoFYI, this is an “article” copy-pasted from Quora.
- tmountain 6y agoDidn't know that, but there's far more out there on the topic if you go looking for the info. Bill Gates had some commentary on the topic regarding the ecological impacts not being what people believe them to be (under the umbrella of public health in Africa).
- mullingitover 6y ago> Believe it or not, the balance of nature depends on them. What would dragon flies eat? What would endangered birds that eat dragonflies eat? Aedes aegypti are an invasive species in most of the world. It's a pure win to eradicate them, they have zero benefits to the ecosystem.
- exabrial 6y agothat's quite fascinating actually