• letsgo@lemm.ee
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    5 minutes ago

    Yeah but those little bastards started it. People call what’s happening in Gaza a genocide but that’s nothing compared with the mozzie kill count.

  • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 hours ago

    I actually love seeing mosquitoes struggle to survive. I don’t care if they’re incapable of morality, they’re evil and I hate them.

  • Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 hour ago

    Horrible and unethical idea: We modify the mosquito to strongly prefer the blood of some specific animal species. Said species will then be raised in captivity only for it to be sacrificed to the mosquitos. This way they get to procreate and spread the modified gene to new generations, and keep them alive for the ecosystem to feed on.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    This is a crime against nature and god and decency, and mosquitos are probably the only place I’d be absolutely, completely for it.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    1 hour ago

    lol its soon gonna be us. and you bet they will be selling it as a great thing at first.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    I had a fruit fly problem over the summer and felt guilty about the cruelty of the glue traps. But when it comes to mosquitos, roaches, and wasps, I’m Hitler. I would favor genetic alterations that expanded their capacity for suffering.

  • Swallowtail@beehaw.org
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    3 hours ago

    I’m having a hard time actually finding a source for this. Just a few poorly written articles that basically cite this video as a source. Something this potentially impactful seems like it would make the rounds more, so I’m very skeptical.

  • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Tbh I wouldn’t be sad if we genetically modified mosquitoes to breed them out of existence like we’ve done with screw worm.

    • TheOakTree@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      I think it’s a genius solution to the explicit problem, but a terrible solution in a larger scope. There are many animals that feed on mosquitos, and they would suffer from massive decreases in mosquito population. This includes birds, frogs, bats, fish, and other insects (many aquatic animals eat mosquito larvae). I would hate to see a cascading reduction in animal populations as a result of these tactics.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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        2 hours ago

        The Aedes Aegypt can go fuck itself with all the diseases it spreads to us. Also, anywhere where it showed up as an unwanted guest, like all Americas, nature will just roll back 3 centuries or so.

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I get the concern, and it’s a good concern to have when you’re talking about what would be such a huge shift in so many ecosystems…

        …buuuuuut…

        I have to believe this change would happen slowly… mosquitoes wouldn’t just go extinct over a holiday weekend. It’d take years, if not decades, of dedication to the eradication strategy and even then, certain populations may prove immune to the best efforts of science.

        That being said, even if it did execute as planned, I feel like the gradual decline of the mosquito would coincide with a gradual increase in other invertebrate species that would fill that niche. So as mosquito populations slowly declined in a local pond or creek, you’d see things like say chironomids (midges) thriving with the reduced competition for habitat, and the fish that ate mosquito larvae replacing that part of their diet with more midges.

        Not saying there couldn’t be other complications, but I don’t think we’d see results fast enough that we’d end up with a broken link of the food chain leading to ecosystem collapse.

    • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      My only problem with it is the fact that you’re taking a major insect class out of the ecosystem and later on down the line it might have serious implications. There will never be enough research on the effects of it until it’s too late to reverse. I hate mosquitoes (I live in Southern LA.) but I don’t think this is the answer.

      • HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone
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        4 hours ago

        I think there was a campaign in china in the mid 20th century that tried to exterminate a bunch of pests like this and it lead to catastrophic famines or something.

        “The Four Evils Campaign” I think it was called.

        • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Not sure about that, but there was an account of something similar in India, I believe, where there was a chemical agent involved that buzzards were extremely susceptible to and wound up killing off most, if not all of the population. This led to carcasses being left to rot and then became vectors for disease and basically led to a chain reaction of events that caused a few million people to die.

          I don’t know if killing off mosquitos would have quite as a profound effect as this, but there are so many things I feel like we have almost no understanding of when it comes to the natural world to say either way.

          I’ve read in a few comments here that there are studies saying that it wouldn’t have a crazy effect - if anyone could link them so I can give them a read, I would appreciate it.

  • fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    I know it’s not that deep but if you type a whole ass paragraph in all caps I want to beat you with a shoe.

  • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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    3 hours ago

    Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every disease ever (edit: when you obviously exclude malaria) along with every war ever, combined.

    Fuck those little shits. Let them all die, it will literally change nothing on this planet because nothing solely survives off predation on mosquitoes or their larvae.

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      But what will happen when the humans lose their natural predators, we might destroy our habita- ah, right. Nevermind

    • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      If those creatures that also eat mosquitoes cannot eat them anymore, that means they would have to eat other bugs more frequently, and possibly fucking up all the ecosystem.

      That said, fuck mosquitoes, they can take blood from other places.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        All of our best data on the impact says that it really wouldn’t matter. Sometimes a species is a linchpin for the ecosystem, and sometimes it isn’t.

        Sucks for mosquitoes, but there’s a very real chance that we’ll smallpox them, and the biggest concern will be our confidence that the virus we use doesn’t impact other species unintentionally.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Haven’t read closely on it, but I’ve seen plenty of articles about the lack of effect we’d see over killing off mosquitoes. I have a feeling that, along with what you said, it’s because they’re tiny.

          Consider the dragonfly. They hunt mosquitoes efficiently. But relative to their size, a mosquito is like us eating a candy bar, or even less. Meanwhile, they could snatch about anything else and it would be like a 3-pound steak.

      • protist
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        9 hours ago

        They’re largely applying this technique to invasive species of mosquitoes, eg Aedes aegypti, which is a potent vector of disease and native of Africa that has spread worldwide only within the past 200 years

      • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        If we were to somehow magically remove mosquitos from existence in an instant, we’d better hope something fills their ecological niche quickly

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Nothing eats them exclusively, that I know of. And they’re tiny. Any insectivore is getting far more nutrition out of about anything else.

          Maybe I’m wrong, but biologists seem to think eradication is a non-issue.

        • smeg@feddit.uk
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          7 hours ago

          I think the purpose of the original genetic modification is to make them unable to bite humans (and spread malaria) but to otherwise leave them capable of feeding, thus not wiping them out and upsetting the ecosystem they’re part of

          • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            The niche being food for fish that share their ecosystem in larval stages, and birds/bats/frogs that share their ecosystem in their adult stage.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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        8 hours ago

        They also eat nectar and are pollinators of various plants.

        There’s no way we could simply remove a creature as numerous and widespread as mosquitoes without any consequences.

    • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      I understand what you’re saying here, but the set of people killed by “every disease ever” includes the entire set of people killed by mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes can’t have killed more people than every disease ever because mosquitoes’ kill count is part of every disease ever.

    • TheRedSpade@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Mosquitoes have killed more humans than every disease ever

      How do they kill us outside of spreading disease?

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Yes. Some (not all species) female mosquitoes drink blood for the protein, which they need for egg production. Their actual diet is nectar from flowers.

    • Cuck4Mai@lemmynsfw.com
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      7 hours ago

      I mean, I hate mosquitoes as much as the next guy, but that sounds like a great way to destroy whole ecosystems that rely on mosquitoes as a food source.

      • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        But keep in mind there are a lot of invasive populations of mosquitoes and some of them are disease carrying species. Since they’re invasive, by definition they’re not vital to the natural ecosystem and those populations could be safely wiped out.

  • SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee
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    5 hours ago

    “sir, there’s been a complication…it seems the mosquitoes with our gene are dying off in water ways and directly polluting the waters…humans may never be erect again.”

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      In all seriousness… that would solve a lot of problems, and humanity would persist with (upgraded) reciprocal IVF. It would be kinda sad to see mankind disappear though.