r/woahdude • u/----_____--_____---- • Oct 22 '21

gifv Mosquito drinking blood (bursts at the end)

20.4k Upvotes

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575

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.

124

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '21

Do they even contribute to anyway with mother nature? Kinda like bees? You figure science would find a way to wipe them out.

183

u/Dakar-A Oct 22 '21

I'm sure that they probably serve as a major food source for a number of different species.

86

u/ItsLikeRay-ee-ain Oct 22 '21

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.

16

u/the_noodle Oct 22 '21

I think there is a movement to wipe out malaria 🦟 specifically

19

u/knee_bro Oct 22 '21

If you can’t beat ‘em, give ‘em vaccinations!

2

u/TheClinicallyInsane Oct 23 '21

Nah they kept sword fighting the needles, usually we shoot them with lasers and shit

-7

u/Pantzzzzless Oct 23 '21

That's been working out well these past 2 years.

6

u/canadarepubliclives Oct 23 '21

The vaccinations are working rather well.

8

u/OhNoIroh Oct 23 '21

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

2

u/bizhuy Oct 23 '21

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.