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Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
- Victerius 4y agoHow there hasn't been a horror movie about mosquitoes is beyond me. Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the last century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark attacks. Mosquitoes kill between 1,500 and 2,000 people every day. Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/chart-of-the-day-mosquitoes-kill-more-people-every-day-than-sharks-do-in-a-century/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/chart-of-the-day-mosq... On a more scientific note, it is my firm belief that the benefits of exterminating all species of mosquitoes on the globe far outweigh the consequences on the food chain. If I had Bill Gates money, this is one of the projects I would work on.
- wincy 4y agoThe Mist does a pretty good job of making mosquitos terrifying.
- CamperBob2 4y agoSame reason we have horror movies about nuclear plant accidents, but none about coal plants that emit more pollution and kill more people. Mosquitoes aren't just deadly, they're boring, and that's an even worse sin.
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- bricemo 4y agoMy theory is it’s because people respond emotionally to drama but not numbers. A shark attack, a plane crash, and an explosion are all much more dramatic but less deadly. What would the dramatic terror scene be? Someone swiping away a mosquito? Very boring. So that’s not what gets made into movies. Secondly, the Gates Foundation does a TON of work with mosquitos and protective nets! They have saved tens of millions of lives. Whenever I have some money to donate and do research on what is the most effective use of each dollar, mosquito nets rise to the top.
- LoveGracePeace 4y agoI don't understand why there's so much Gates love in this thread. Mosquito nets have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years.
- nataz 4y agoI present to you 1994's Mosquito https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_(film)
- bombcar 4y agoDon’t forget ‘93s Skeeter https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108154/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108154/
- GauntletWizard 4y agoI enjoyed Mansquito: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430334/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430334/
- chewz 4y ago96 percent of deaths are in Africa and 80 percent of deaths in Africa are children below 5 years old.. I do not want to be cynical but that statistic might explain inaction... https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
- SnowHill9902 4y agoIf you are reasonably healthy, reasonably young, and reasonably well-off, you’ll most probably not die from any mosquito-transmitted disease. And most people think that they belong to that group. None of the above will protect you from a shark once it found you.
- jefftk 4y agoEven in that group, you're still probably more likely to die by mosquito then shark?
- SnowHill9902 4y agoI guess it depends on your Bayesian updating model.
- boeingUH60 4y agoTo add, sharks are literal scary freaks...in pictures, not to talk of seeing such a beast in real life. On the other hand, I've killed more mosquitoes than I care to remember.
- wrs 4y agoThe Gates foundation has granted billions of dollars for malaria research including mosquito control. And Bill himself released some (possibly imaginary) mosquitoes into the TED audience to make this point, which was pretty hilarious. “There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience,” he said.
- car_analogy 4y ago> Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the last century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark attacks. Ghosts and zombies have claimed even fewer lives. Meanwhile, no horror movies are about cancer or heart disease.
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- shironandon 4y ago
- kzrdude 4y agoThe same can be said about covid
- Victerius 4y agoAs someone who also believes that human overpopulation is the source of many of our problems, including climate change, I could not wish for the mass death of other human beings. Low birth rates, economic pressures, and increased access to birth control and education for women are going to take care of the issue.
- Finnucane 4y agoMalaria used to routinely kill millions every year. Antimalaria programs have made a lot of progress, but a lot remains to be done, for sure.
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- csdvrx 4y agoYet due to the precautionary principle, we will not eradicate them as a species, since it might cause some human death. It seems illogical to me that almost 1 million dead for sure is preferable to a low percentage risk of a few thousand that might die say due to chemical pollution from the bugspray selected: even at a very conservative 1% risk, eradicating mosquitoes can't cause 100 million death -- and that's only counting 1 year, while we should use a sum over 10 years, but even then with a 5% discount rate for uncertainty it still doesn't make sense to prefer inaction. I believe it's a case of status-quo bias.
- svnt 4y agoYou should look into the DDT effort and the consequences of it. You are grossly oversimplifying and making it sound like everyone is just sitting around leaning on “the precautionary principle.”
- BurningFrog 4y agoThere are surround 800 mosquito species. Only ~20 of them can carry malaria. There is active research into eradicating those.
- WalterGR 4y ago"Mosquito control: Proposals to eradicate mosquitoes" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_control#Proposals_to_eradicate_mosquitoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_control#Proposals_to_...
- WithinReason 4y ago"In the 20th century alone, malaria claimed between 150 million and 300 million lives, accounting for 2 to 5 percent of all deaths." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/
- boomboomsubban 4y agoMaybe it's just me, but the link is in Spanish and you can change it at the top. Or this should be the English link. https://www.isglobal.org/en/-/mosquito-el-animal-mas-letal-del-mundo https://www.isglobal.org/en/-/mosquito-el-animal-mas-letal-d... edit seems to have been changed.
- jannes 4y agoIt appears to be based on this blog post by Bill Gates from 2014 (if you want to read the original): https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquito-Week https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit...
- henearkr 4y agoIt's not mosquitoes per se, but the plasmodia they carry, that kill people. So, if we could design a cure for mosquitoes, that would be really a good thing for both humans and nature. Maybe similar to what we already do with wolbachia to cure mosquitoes of arboviruses such as dengue or zika.
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- rossdavidh 4y ago"humans by the way are second behind the mosquito, causing 475,000 deaths every year..." Depending on your background, you are either amazed that we are the second-biggest threat to ourselves because it's so self-destructive, or because you were convinced we had to be our own worst enemy.
- rdubz 4y ago"Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around the world." https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... Seems to me that traffic deaths are "caused by" humans... not totally surprised they have decided those don't count, but I feel that that's wrong.
- coopsmoss 4y agoProbably excluded because they're deemed unintentional. Of course the mosquitoes don't kill us intentionally either.
- ironhaven 4y agoWell... cars are the dominant species on the planet so it makes sense not to count them as human caused deaths.
- readme 4y agos/on the planet/in the US/
- sgustard 4y agoUS is 6th, so not far off, but fewer cars per person than the rampant car culture of ... Iceland and New Zealand? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...
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- dang 4y agoRelated: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23351643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23351643 - May 2020 (392 comments)
- ffhhj 4y agoMosquitoes are amazing biological drones, will find a victim by breath and skin smell (ie. toes), will conceal on dark surfaces from a distance so they have a space model of their victim's location, they also search for holes in clothing and bite thru it if possible. If they get too full of blood and heavy will walk to a safe location, will dodge attacks from larger animals, and begin a erratic flight pattern and free-falls to get lost. Also they are born with enough energy to fly a considerable distance.
- saganus 4y agoI am convinced they can also phase-shift out of this plane or something... You can be following a mosquito with all your attention, and suddenly they just dissapear and no amount of looking around, even with a bright flashlight, will be enough to find them. Until you give up, go do something else and they come back.
- tux3 4y agoThey don't mind using the third dimension, like dropping down to your knees or hiding near/on a ceiling. I've had one try to go behind my back while I was following it. They're clever enough to not move once hidden so making noise, light, or flailing around nearby won't make them fly away and reveal their hiding spot. But that's also their downfall when you do spot them. Cursed fucking creatures. They're optimized to perfectly ruin a good night's sleep, and for no good reason. A sufficiently pissed off human in an enclosed space always wins. The poor things get hungry first.
- saganus 4y agoOh yes. I am both amused and annoyed at their abilities.
- verisimi 4y ago
- sonicggg 4y agoThis is incorrect. Mosquitoes do not kill anyone, but rather the pathogens they carry. They are just the vector. If I have Covid-19, I pass it to you, and you die, does it mean I killed you?
- moron4hire 4y agoThis is the sort of technically correct that functionally doesn't help anyone, like arguing "guns don't kill people, bullets do". If you intentionally broke quarantine, knowing you were sick, knowing you could get other people such, yes, you killed that person. That is not controversial.
- jhugo 4y ago> If you intentionally broke quarantine, knowing you were sick, knowing you could get other people such, yes, you killed that person. That is not controversial. Do you feel that way for all communicable diseases or only for Covid?
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- jeromegv 4y agoIf you have AIDS, hide it from your partners, don’t use protection and happen to get someone infected… I think we can both agree this isn’t some Covid slippery slope.
- jhugo 4y agoThat's a wildly extreme example to compare going outside with Covid to. Given that you are incredibly unlikely to kill someone by going out when you have Covid, this is more like going to work when you have a minor respiratory infection, which many people do, and are even sometimes tacitly encouraged to do so by their employers. As a society we haven't typically referred to those people as killers, even though there is a small risk that, for example, they have influenza, pass it on to someone who is vulnerable, and that person dies. It is clearly inconsistent to treat that situation differently to someone who goes out while they have Covid.
- user3939382 4y agoYeah but how many mosquitoes do we kill in return? There’s been bloodshed on both sides.
- SapporoChris 4y agoBut the blood feeding is one sided. (I hope)
- Sponge5 4y agoNot true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LItNFP7icUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LItNFP7icUw
- SapporoChris 4y agoI believe those are Midge flies, not mosquitoes. But I'd not be surprised if someone has cooked up some mosquitoes after watching that short clip.
- Omin 4y agoWhen we kill them, we're shedding more of our blood than theirs.
- seattle_spring 4y ago> Yeah but how many mosquitoes do we kill in return? Not enough.
- ncmncm 4y agoNah, mosquitoes don't have blood. Until they bite.
- iLoveOncall 4y agoHow many mosquitoes do human kill every year?
- moffkalast 4y agoClearly not enough.
- humbleMouse 4y ago
- can16358p 4y agoEvolutionary or not I don't know, but I can't stand that sound of mosquitos and want to kill them. I'm someone who helps a bee/spider/any insect find its way instead of killing, but for some reason I literally want every mosquito on the planet to die. Perhaps this explains it.
- FredPret 4y agoIf I may, what continent are you on? I moved from Africa with its noisy mosquitoes to Canada where the mosquitoes are silent but the bites are violent.
- seattle_spring 4y agoThe worst mosquitos I've ever encountered in the world were right outside Jasper NP in Alberta.
- LoveGracePeace 4y agoI should stop complaining to my wife we should move to a cold climate to escape the mosquitoes.
- hansvm 4y agoWhat you want is a windy climate. Breezes should never drop under 10mph
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- LoveGracePeace 4y agoThat's really a good idea, keep them all mixed up while they try to track us lol.
- glandium 4y agoThe worst things I've ever encountered are not mosquitos, but somehow related. They are midges. I had my encounter in Scotland, and ever since that encounter I don't mind mosquitoes one bit. Because the problem with midges is that they surround you in thousands, land, possibly enter orifices (nose, ears) and bite you (they don't sting, they bite). I ended up with >100 bites per arm and >200 per leg from a limited time of exposure.
- User23 4y agoIf only we had a solution to this problem. Oh wait, we do. Malaria used to be endemic in the USA[1]. The solution is basically carpet bombing DDT for several years to wipe out the diseased mosquito population. But some idiot do-gooder decided to raise a fuss about songbirds so now we continue to have hundreds of thousands of human beings needlessly die. And of course we now know that the birds recovered just fine. What’s worse the so-called responsible uses of DDT like infused netting are just artificially selecting for DDT resistance without wiping out the disease reservoir as was done in the USA. Edit: fascinating that people think a few generations of songbirds whose populations fully recovered are more important than 700,000 human lives a year. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
- erddfre3423 4y agoWiping out malaria from Africa probably wouldn't save lives long-term, considering the totally unsustainable levels of population growth at the same time when climate change renders many areas less habitable. Massive starvation seems inevitable. Antimalarial programs that don't cause massive environmental pollution are definitely the better choice here. At least they have few risks, even if the long-term outcome is equally uncertain.
- lisper 4y agoMosquitos are proof that the universe was not created by a benevolent god.
- varajelle 4y agoMaybe human are only on earth as food for mosquitoes. Maybe mosquitoes is god's plan.
- chasd00 4y agoFurther proof the universe was not created by a benevolent god.
- varajelle 4y agoThe "benevolent" God flooded entire countries, sent some bad stuff to Egypt, and did many other "horrible" things to random groups of humans. But that's all part of his plan that we cannot comprehend. (Maybe they were not faithful enough, or not from the right chosen People?) So I'm not sure this proves anything.
- bamboozled 4y agoMaybe there is some truth to the fact mosquitoes can only thrive with access to still water? I once visited Indonesia and stayed at this place which was essentially jungle. I thought I was going to get destroyed by mosquitoes and yes we did have nets etc, but I was surprised at the lack of mosquitoes when outside. I spoke with the owner who me that he doesn't worry much about mosquito born illness because he ensures there is no still water anywhere near his place. He said the most dangerous place for this type of thing was near small cities and towns because lots of dirty still water is present in gutters and pot holes etc. These places are breeding grounds for things like dengue fever according to the locals. I can't really verify how true this but anecdotally I had a similar experience when I lived in a city, we started to get a LOT of mosquitoes hanging around our yard during rainy season. I went outside and noticed that many peoples bike tarps had sagged and formed ponds which had tons of mosquitoes hanging around them. I remembered what I learned on my trip and cleared all the water away. I do think it helped. Definitely not trying to state this stuff as fact, just thought it would be interesting to share.
- cguess 4y agoMosquitos lay eggs in standing water and one of the major mitigation techniques is removing puddles (old tires, canoes turns upright, etc). The CDC even recommends this for prevention of West Nile (a mosquito born illness) https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/prevention/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/prevention/index.html
- its_bbq 4y agoThis is effective for mosquitoes for two reasons First, because they lay eggs in standing water. Second, because mosquitos are relatively weak flyers compared to other flies. They often only travel a few hundred yards from where they were born during their lifetime. So removing standing water is an excellent way to keep mosquitos at bay. If you can't, applying BTI spores to the standing water can target their larva.
- silisili 4y agoReason 2 is also important. You can often avoid mosquitoes in any area if you're willing to deal with a few large fans.
- siva7 4y agoI’m developing a mosquitoe gun so people can defend themselves. If anyone has interest in joining my startup let me know
- morpheos137 4y agoThe world is not running out of people. More than 7 billion people are alive every year. Given a number of years, all those alive now will be dead.
- throwaway290 4y agoThey are also food for birds and other creatures, right? So if we eliminate mosquitoes, we'll get rid of those too. The least death-prone environment for humans is probably sterile with no other lifeforms...
- Vladimof 4y agoI would like to see an experiment where we exterminate mosquitoes... We have the technology.
- cassepipe 4y ago
- dotsam 4y agoDonating to anti-malaria charities is a highly cost-effective way to improve lives per dollar spent - see Give Well's top charities if you are interested in how you can make a difference: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
- yboris 4y agoA recent (and characteristically in-depth) interview from 80,000 Hours podcast about malaria control: > James Tibenderana on the state of the art in malaria control and elimination https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/james-tibenderana-malaria-control-and-elimination/ https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/james-tibenderana-ma...