• Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Meh, the global ecosystem is fucked anyway. Might as well trim out the especially annoying bits and enjoy some relative comfort on our way to extinction. If doing so accelerates our downfall a bit, that’s a fair trade.

    I say it’s worth the risk.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Funny how much (actual scientific) debate is around mosquito extinction event whilst we are well into a mass extinction event we caused (not to mention all the direct and systemic ecosystem eradication such as marshlands of all sorts).

  • Username02@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The mosquito we see around us are invasive species that we humans brought along as we migrate across the continent. Make sense if their extinction bring neglectable impact to the local ecosystem. They aren’t supposed to be there to begin with.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Doing it on purpose for self defense seems less bad to me than indiscriminately because we want to be more comfortable but maybe that’s a meaningless distinction.

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Mosquitos are pollinators. And in some parts of the world that have extreme seasons that can’t sustain bees, they seem rather important to the ecosystem.

    Instead of eradicating them, genetically engineering away the numbing in their saliva that causes the allergic reaction in humans could be a solution.

    I’ll trade a couple weeks of itchy bites for a briefly painful bite any day.

    Sure, humans would kill them instantly on feeling the bite, but most animals are not capable of that. Their populations would be fine.

  • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Mosquitos feed on apex predators and feed the nearly bottom of the food chain. Imo they’re up there with salmon in terms of nutrient transfer, absolutely would cause chaos at all levels if they were eliminated.

    • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Uninformed take. First of, we are working on killing off only a few, malaria carrying Mosquito species in certain regions. Whatever niche they leave will be filled by another, possibly native species of Mosquito.

      2nd, nutrient transfer my butt, they carry like 1ml and that’s mostly water. You definitely transfer more nutrients by having some ants in your compost bin.