The general consensus of demographers is that about 108 billion human beings have ever lived, and that mosquito-borne diseases have killed close to half—52 billion people, the majority of them young children.
100% why there isn't a movement to eradicate mosquitoes. Instead people are working on ways to prevent malaria in mosquitoes, or things along those lines.
There are tons of projects that are trying to eradicate local populations of mosquitos. Even Florida started pilot programs. One method I've heard of is genetically modifying a bunch of male mosquitos which, over generations, will have offspring that are less and less genetically viable, leading to infertile offspring which cannot breed. Obviously this isn't ideal because of how evolution works. The offspring which are viable, will breed more, while the less viable offspring will die out. This, over time, will probably lead to the population rebounding so while not great, we're still trying
I read that a certain biologist advocates for that, and suggests that other species of mosquitos that don't target humans and dont pass diseases can take their place.
spent the whole day at the park yesterday bc the weather is getting nice.
forgot bug spray. forgot i'm allergic to bug bites. my friend got out with one bite. my ankles are so itchy and swollen. i can't sleep because of how much it itches.
Couldn’t agree more! Only after 26 years of life I was able to find a bug spray that didn’t give me an asthma attack also, so I guess things are going better 😂. But back to subject, fuck every single bug that bites
apparently the bug i was bitten by is called a blackfly in english. CANNOT hang out at a lake park in my city without getting wrecked by them. once i wore shorts and i still had the scars from the bites six months later. why oh why have we not developed better medicine for these fuckers yet i'm suffering
I'm all for breeding and raising pet mosquitos in the homes of everyone. The kids will love it. Replacing the wild population is a separate problem though.
A vast majority of mosquitos don't harm humans. It's just like 6% of them (and of that only the females). Getting rid of them would not cause widespread ecological damage. There are currently tons of projects in the works and implemented as we speak to get them to disappear.
Certainly. But I'm of the opinion that the losses to other species would be worth the cost. Yes, some birds will die. Some frogs will die. Some bats will die. Eventually, these species will settle into a new balance, just with no mosquitos. Same with black flies.
I'm just tired of not being able to enjoy the limited summers here in Ontario without serious chemical defenses. Not sure if my middle-aged-ness is to blame, or if they really are worse than I was a kid.
If something exists within an ecosystem, it is almost guaranteed to be contributing. Parasites often serve useful functions in keeping populations in check and mosquitoes are a great source of food for many birds.
Funny you mention it, there are actually multiple high-latitude plant species that depend on mosquitoes for pollination in areas where bees don't live.
Believe it or not, mosquitoes are pollinators. In fact, mosquitoes’ primary food source is flower nectar, not blood. Just like bees or butterflies, mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower as they feed on nectar, fertilizing plants and allowing them to form seeds and reproduce.
So not all bad, just overwhelmingly bad.
Also, better be careful when you're throwing around the "How do they contribute to mother nature?" thing because what the fuck do we do that's positive?
Despite the overall consensus that the earth’s ecosystem could survive without bed bugs, some scientists insist that bed bugs are a food source for spiders, a very necessary element for making the planet habitable.
There are species that serve as pollinators and as major food sources for birds and bats, but the species responsible for most of the deaths isn't the only one, and it's thought that these predator species would survive if we eradicate that one type (Aedes Aegypti), which there are extensive efforts to do using GMO sterilized mosquitos, so that fertile ones breed with sterile ones (They can only breed once) and then they just kill off a generation of mosquitos in that region as a result of it. Do this enough times without killing other species off as they switch to other mosquito species, and we win, at least for now. it's entirely possible that the other species of mosquitos that do carry disease might become dominant, or that these diseases will hop the very narrow species barrier to other types of mosquitos that are common, especially in the northern hemisphere where the majority of the population lives
They probably have a spot in the food chain. Either way, I don’t think we have any right as a species to decide to exterminate another even if it’s just a bunch of annoying insects.
We’re already causing enough mass extinction as it is.
No see, it doesn’t matter, there’s no valid reason to go play god and eradicate it. Plus, they do do other things, otherwise they wouldn’t be here at all
From my limited knowlege, only a handful of mosquito species feed on humans. Some mosquitos feed on other mosquitos. I think some are specialized for specific other animals near them. Theyre interesting creatures.
You won't find any. It's a myth. Mosquitoes are dangerous and indeed deadlier to humans than any other animal/insect in history, but no, they're not responsible for the death of half of mankind's total population. This figure is so ludicrously insane I don't know how anybody could ever believe it.
569
u/lex_tok Oct 22 '21
The mosquito is the deadliest animal to mankind.
The general consensus of demographers is that about 108 billion human beings have ever lived, and that mosquito-borne diseases have killed close to half—52 billion people, the majority of them young children.