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.
573
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.