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The Secret Lives of Mosquitoes
- kleer001 5y agoOk, some of those are really pretty. Still, as the number one killer of humans, ever, I'd say that hate is well earned.
- jacobwilliamroy 5y agoI thought the number one cause of death in humans was heart disease?
- tasty_freeze 5y agoIn countries where the main problem is an overabundance of food, where people live a long time, then yes, heart disease is the #1 killer. For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue.
- moralestapia 5y ago>For most of history and much of the less developed modern world, heart disease is not much of an issue. >not. much. of. an. issue. Sorry but I can only laugh at that statement. Do you live in a different "world", by chance? Where I live (Earth, third planet from the sun) heart related conditions are always leading causes of death, even in poor countries.
- tasty_freeze 5y ago> Do you live in a different "world", by chance? Do you make a habit of belittling when making your points? >not. much. of. an. issue. If you are going to quote me, please quote me, don't add extra text that I didn't write. > heart related conditions are always leading causes of death, even in poor countries. OK, I picked Nigeria out of a hat. It is a large country so the statistics should be pretty stable and has a diversity of rural and urban populations. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1122916/main-causes-of-death-and-disability-in-nigeria/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1122916/main-causes-of-d... If you don't want to click, the short of it is: neonatal (12%), malaria (12%), diarrhea (11%), lower respiratory infection (11%), HIV/AIDS (5%), heart disease (4.4%) Your claim that it is always the #1 killer is disproven. Are there poor countries where heart disease is #1. For sure. But you shouldn't be sneering at my statement.
- kleer001 5y agoper capita in certain countries but by historical body count alone nothing comes close to those little buggers
- moralestapia 5y agoYou are right, and finding data on that is trivial. It is quite foolish to argue against that.
- kleer001 5y agoPer year and all-time are different stats
- moralestapia 5y ago??? You seem to imply that Malaria has killed more humans throughout history than heart disease. Laughably, you do not show any source to back up your statement ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I disagree based on extremely easy to obtain numbers from sources like [1]. Malaria at 200k/year is not even close to Ischaemic heart disease at at about 9M/year. That is an almost 50-fold difference (!). Given that we have experienced an exponential growth in population in the last 100 or so years, I would not be inclined to believe that something in the past has enough weight to shift the numbers in such dramatic way to invert this trend (50 to 1); and that's being VERY generous and assuming that somehow, in the past, for whatever reason, nobody died from heart disease, at all. If you have a substantial contribution to make please do so and provide data to support your arguments, otherwise, refrain from spreading lies and FUD. [1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-...
- kleer001 5y agoah, I see the confusion. Heart disease may have killed more, cancer too, but neither of those are animals. The stat easily stands at mosquitoes being the number one deadliest animal to humans of all time. https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/2019/10/03/has_malaria_really_killed_half_of_everyone_who_ever_lived.html https://www.realclearscience.com/quick_and_clear_science/201...
- kleer001 5y agoheart disease isn't an animal
- s5300 5y agoWithout mosquito's, we very likely wouldn't have Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was suddenly taken from the front lines due to severe mosquito born illness, and the very next day or so his entire battalion was wiped out in an artillery barrage, or something close to that nature. However, I don't particularly think it can be said that LotR makes up for the history of mosquitoes crimes against humanity...
- imvetri 5y agoReminds me of a quote. To kill a mosquito, you have to be the bait.
- betwixthewires 5y agoI just want to point out that I've never heard anyone call for the eradication of mosquitoes that don't spread disease in humans, a major premise of the article.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- smabie 5y agoWell then I'll be the first. Let's just kill them, they're annoying.
- dang 5y agoPlease don't post shallow dismissals to HN. We want curious conversation here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- stitched2gethr 5y agoTotal agreement. I love this planet but those things need to burn.
- DonHopkins 5y agoWe just need to recruit and deploy billions of Vampire Spiders! https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/05/mosquito-eating-vampire-spider-could-be-recruited-for-war-on-malaria https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/05/m... >Mosquito-eating vampire spider could be recruited for war on malaria >Cross says that these arachnids, also known as vampire spiders, “love” feeding on human blood as it gives them an odour that renders them sexually attractive to potential mates. >But the spiders pose no danger to humans, the researchers say. Even though they like human blood, they lack specialised mouth parts to pierce people’s skin. Instead, to get the nutritious blood meal, the spiders feed on the female mosquitoes that carry blood sucked from humans. “Their compound eyes give them clear eyesight. And just like a cat, they stalk their prey and pounce on them at the right moment,” she says. The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Arachnology, says that the spiders identify female Anopheles mosquitoes through their up-tilted abdomens — a resting posture they adopt after feeding on human blood. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/to-study-vampire-spiders-build-frankenstein-mosquitoes https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/to-study-... >To study vampire spiders, build Frankenstein mosquitoes >They confronted captive spiders with lures built from body parts of dead mosquitoes, which had been glued together in different combinations like miniature Frankenstein’s monsters. The spiders saw two lures at a time, and Nelson noted which they pounced upon. “They are easy-to-handle, patient spiders,” she says. “Being so picky, it means we can ask them questions and get answers regarding their preferences that makes it seem like they answered in English.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evarcha_culicivora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evarcha_culicivora >Evarcha culicivora is a species of jumping spider (family Salticidae) found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda.[1] At maturity, E. culicivora spiders have an average size of 5 mm for both males and females. The range in size for either sex is quite small, with females being only slightly larger on average (4-7 mm compared to 3-6 mm).[2] >It is commonly known as the vampire spider because it indirectly desires the blood of vertebrates. It does this by predating on blood-sucking female mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles, the mosquito responsible for transmitting malaria in the region, as well as other vector-borne diseases in humans.[1] Experimentally, these spiders are considered Anopheles specialists.[3] E. culicivora has an association with the native plants Lantana camara and Ricinus communis. They consume the nectar for food and preferentially use these plants as a location for courtship.[4]
- jdkee 5y agoMosquitoes that bite humans need to be eradicated. Gene drive. Full stop.
- dang 5y agoPlease don't post shallow, adamant comments on divisive topics. It's flamebait, and we're trying for curious conversation here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- rtkaratekid 5y agoJust curious, have you seen an uptick in these tours of comments as of late?
- dang 5y agoNot particularly, no. Of course there are always fluctuations and it's hard to separate out randomness from trends.
- throwanem 5y agoPerhaps I have been hasty in entirely writing off Diptera.
- cowturds 5y agoWhat use case of Mosquitoes could possibly exist?
- wesleywt 5y agoI seem to be the lone defender of the mosquito and tsetse fly. These insects protect animals and habitats from the most insidious creature on this planet,humans.
- stalkingvictim 5y agomosquitoes ostensibly had a funeral outside of my homeless truck today. i killed 3 infidels last night by clapping my hands when they became stuck inside the cab.
- finiteseries 5y agoThese insects don’t protect anything, mosquitos and tsetse flies haven’t been a valid reason to avoid settling an area since the Colombian Exchange. It isn’t difficult to drain a marsh. Any precious little swamp (where all the wondrous animals within are also being preyed upon by mosquitoes & eg tsetse flies) is still going to be drained if it makes economic sense, and it typically does! The only place where mosquitoes and tsetse flies protect “habitats” are in the most backwater, poorest, least developed regions of the planet where all the millions of deaths are as well, it figures their lives don’t matter/can be taken advantage of in the name of “nature”.
- _cs2017_ 5y agoHow is the beauty of the insect or the way it cares about its eggs relevant to whether or not it should be eradicated? > Must we also evict the magnificently iridescent mosquitoes whose larvae prey on dangerous species, or the ones that pollinate flowers at night, or the single species known to risk its life to protect its eggs from harm?
- mc32 5y agoIt’s nice and poetic. These thoughts will leave any non modern human in peril in the savanna or most wildernesses because nature doesn’t care and can be utterly violent. I would call this attitude the privilege of modernity that disconnects people from immediate danger affording them these mental exercises that would in another time imperil them.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago>...savanna or most wildernesses. Reading this while dual wielding mosquito bats like a Jedi while the mosquito repellent is nauseating me at my suburban house in India. My school books proudly claimed Alexander the Great died because of the Malaria he contracted during his campaign in India.
- mykowebhn 5y agoThe beauty of most species is entirely relevant to whether or not it should be eradicated. Conservation biologists and botanists recognize that beauty and, more generally, charisma are what gets the public's attention when the former seek help for their conservation efforts. As such, you'll often see the most charismatic species--pandas, whales, and seals, for example--on conservation brochures. People only ever open their wallets to support conservation efforts if they see pictures of charismatic species. This is not just a marketing ploy. The public really only cares when charismatic species are threatened with extinction. A midwestern grass or an ugly insect? Not so much. So the beauty of the insect or the way it cares about its eggs is entirely relevant in the public opinion, which in turn determines public policy, to whether or not it should be eradicated.
- specialist 5y ago
- lemoncurd 5y agothis article was written by a mousquitoe