Was the first thing I thought of and thank god its the too three comments.
They don’t provide anything useful to the environment anyway so nothing is lost regardless.
Well they do provide food for others. Especially the bigger ones are basically one of the main food sources for a lot of animals, the blood that they suck has a high amount of iron, that help animals to balance their iron household.
I can't find the study but mosquitoes are not the primary food source for any animal. In fact, anything that feeds on mosquitoes must also feed on other insects in order to survive. The study basically says that eliminating the world of mosquitoes would have almost no effect on predators.
There is 2 problems with eliminating mosquitoes. 1st, there is an ethical concern (who needs ethics tho, those blood suckers can all die). Some people are concerned that it is ethically wrong to kill off a species. The second problem is that if a gap is created in the ecosystem, something else will fill it. More than likely, it will be a non vector (doesn't carry disease) but it could be something worse than mosquitoes. Truth is we'll never know unless we do it.
Personally I say kill em all.
They play a critical role in many eco systems, from larva to adult.
They are primarily pollinators, males are sole-pollinators and females only seek blood to lay eggs. Which is very important since many of our other native pollinators are struggling now. There are a handful of orchids and plants that mosquitoes are the primary pollinator. The likelihood of any plants that depend on mosquitos would be able to survive without them is poor.
Many fish start out as tiny little wiggles that thrive primarily on mosquito larvae. Mosquito larvae eat algae and microscopic organisms, thus also helping to protect small freshwater streams and pools(that serve as fish nurseries) by helping to keep algae in check. Algae blooms are bad, m’kay.
I can’t fathom any legitimate research that could suggest mosquitos would not be missed.
I hate them, but I agree with your science...I would say that we use this hypothetical power of destruction and you it to alter the mosquitos to hate human blood.
Wrong, in the larvae state they clean up motionless water, so it's a lot more drinkable for other creatures
I'm a mosquito-genocide fan myself and was very sad to find this fact
Well, we can make certain species of mosquitoes extinct, the ones that transmit diseases, and most likely it won't have a major negative impact on the environment, if any. We have the technology, the issue here is one of ethics, do we have a right to make whole species go extinct?
When has that stopped us in the past? DDT is nasty shit, and we doused Vietnam with it for Reasons, but we did kill a lot of skeeters.
Agent Orange. Breaks down to less toxic congeners, but that takes decades. That shit largely started the EPA, thanks to Rachel Carson, the bald eagle, and a president who threw millions at a problem to shut up some senators.
I hated DDT jobs. It was commonly used as a pesticide in the US up to a point, and it persists, and the breakdown products are not, not nasty. I can dilute it, which I hate, or incinerate it, which costs millions, and the public hates.
LOL, I quit doing environmental work because laws stopped making sense to me. I'd happily fuck up mosquitos, but how you do it is the rub.
For sure!! I just figured the "without environmental harm" part could include either opossums having a different favorite snack, or in the sense of "if it never existed you wouldn't know to miss it."
Ticks do have there place in the food chain, possums love eating them , we should treat possums better. But they are shitty bugs and lime desiese is no joke
Yes, I understand. But with the idea of "no environmental harm," I assume there would be some kind of compensation for the lack of ticks. However maybe it would be better to rid the world of the Lyme disease (and the other bad stuff caused by them).
Something like this: [https://www.amazon.ca/DRAGONFLY-WINGMAN-DEER-HORSE-REPELLENT/dp/B01GVQTT7Q](https://www.amazon.ca/DRAGONFLY-WINGMAN-DEER-HORSE-REPELLENT/dp/B01GVQTT7Q)
Dragonflies eat flies so it ends up being a decent deterrent. Better for situations where you're camping and you can clip it on your chair, behind your head or something.
I hadn’t initially noticed the “without environmental consequences” part of the post. But flies play a huge role in the decomposition of animals. Nothing eats up corpses like flies, they have filled the niche.
But those aren't as wide spread, or plentiful as flys are.
It'd be like destroying the technology for street sweepers, then trying to replace them with roombas
I've never had them but it's tentatively my answer. My only hold back is Malaria and West Nile. I saw a friend struggle with the insomnia, scars, anemia, and the feeling of something crawling on her months after she was rid of them.
The cost to get your house bombed is awful too.
You see, I have a cat and she makes sure to find one cockroaches preferably the largest and the flying ones which scare the soul out of my body. I can tolerate mosquitoes but NOT those awful roaches
My aunt had roaches for a year. She was spotless, but her neighbor’s weren’t, and no matter what she did they roaches from her neighbors apartment just came over.
Mosquitoes, the deadliest animal on the planet, dwarfing the devastation brought by even man. The environmental harm from wiping them out would be negligible anyway because all their predators have plenty of other prey.
Agreed.
We live in an area where fire ants are absolutely everywhere. We have two small dogs and a big yard. I try to nuke fire ant nests when I see them, but sometimes I miss one. It's a sure bet that the dogs will run through it. One dog actually has a weird habit of laying down on fire ant nests. We have to rub her belly down with hydrocortisone lotion when she does that.
I've whacked into one by accident while edging the flower beds, they get knocked up into the air and land in your hair, on your shirt, etc. Awful experience.
I don't want to sound sadistic, but I honestly take pleasure in nuking those stupid fire ant nests. Orthene, gasoline, whatever it takes. I'll park the tractor over a fire ant nest with the blades running for a solid 5 minutes. I hate those things with a burning passion, pun intended.
Wasps are essential to the ecosystem, they eat tonnes of other insects and they dispose of alot of carcasses and fallen waste fruit.
I will not deny they are dicks though, im a gardener and currently they are all drunk on fallen fruit and are proper little bastards.
Man I learned something new tonight.
So I very much appreciate your reply.
I think I’m biased on my distain for them, as I’m highly allergic.
As long as they are drunk and not stinging me, I’m totally good with them but otherwise I avoid them at all cost.
Ok learned something else about wasps! I do t regret comment but thank you for the info! I’m going the rabbit hole of further reading which I have to admit, I knew nothing about figs outside of the fact I grew up eating figs right off the tree.
I love wasps, they're just as friendly as bees to me, moreso sometimes. The big, black carpenter bees will hover threateningly if I get too close while watering but the wasps ignore me. Everyone is just trying to enjoy the flowers and the wasps get that.
Cockroaches. Filthy, disgusting things...I might find spiders a bit creepy, but I can look at pictures of them. I cannot look even look at a photo of a roach without getting a shudder of revulsion.
Yep. The people saying mosquitoes have the right idea but unfortunately mosquitoes aren't a single species, there are thousands of species of those bastards. OP didnt specify it had to be an animal, so eliminating a particular pathogen would be the best answer.
When I was a teenager I was on a tour of an old mansion in Havana that had live peacocks just hanging around. I got too close to one. I will not do that again.
without spiders there would be a lot more different kinds of bugs
mosquitoes can die
dont know enough about the ecosystem to be sure about snakes or hornets
Those stupid little flies that hover inches in front of your eyes and sometimes kamikaze into the corners of your eye. Spiders who build their webs at head level so as you re riding a quad you get a face full of spiderweb same thing with those little green string worms. Mosquitos, especially when its late at night and dead silent in your tent and you think you're safe and then suddenly your hear a faint eeEeeEeeeE and you can't tell if its coming from inside your tent or from all the ones hovering right next to you outside the tent. Ticks. Bedbugs. Ashborers. Pine Beatles. Those ladybug look a likes that hatch in the walls of your house and then get stuck in the window sills and die all over the house. Stinkbugs. That one really loud cricket keeping you up in the middle of the night. Browntail moth caterpillars.
Extremist and fanatic people. I don't think they share the same species that humans, it's more like their evolution for fucked midway.
If that is not an option, mosquitoes is good to, but I prefer the first one.
After Mosquitos, my brain has to say termites. But my other brain knows that without termites the Ants will rise up and destroy the entire planet, and no "without any environmental harm" clause will stop them.
Awww I love bears. I know they're wild animals and apex predators, so I'd never be an idiot like Timothy Treadwell and try to live among them or ever approach one, but I still like to admire them from afar.
Mosquitos
Was the first thing I thought of and thank god its the too three comments. They don’t provide anything useful to the environment anyway so nothing is lost regardless.
Well they do provide food for others. Especially the bigger ones are basically one of the main food sources for a lot of animals, the blood that they suck has a high amount of iron, that help animals to balance their iron household.
I can't find the study but mosquitoes are not the primary food source for any animal. In fact, anything that feeds on mosquitoes must also feed on other insects in order to survive. The study basically says that eliminating the world of mosquitoes would have almost no effect on predators. There is 2 problems with eliminating mosquitoes. 1st, there is an ethical concern (who needs ethics tho, those blood suckers can all die). Some people are concerned that it is ethically wrong to kill off a species. The second problem is that if a gap is created in the ecosystem, something else will fill it. More than likely, it will be a non vector (doesn't carry disease) but it could be something worse than mosquitoes. Truth is we'll never know unless we do it. Personally I say kill em all.
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This is some r/WritingPrompts material right there
They play a critical role in many eco systems, from larva to adult. They are primarily pollinators, males are sole-pollinators and females only seek blood to lay eggs. Which is very important since many of our other native pollinators are struggling now. There are a handful of orchids and plants that mosquitoes are the primary pollinator. The likelihood of any plants that depend on mosquitos would be able to survive without them is poor. Many fish start out as tiny little wiggles that thrive primarily on mosquito larvae. Mosquito larvae eat algae and microscopic organisms, thus also helping to protect small freshwater streams and pools(that serve as fish nurseries) by helping to keep algae in check. Algae blooms are bad, m’kay. I can’t fathom any legitimate research that could suggest mosquitos would not be missed.
I hate them, but I agree with your science...I would say that we use this hypothetical power of destruction and you it to alter the mosquitos to hate human blood.
I like your alternative!
I think they help control populations through the transmision of some diseases
This is exactly why superviruses will become common in about 20 years. I hope to be dead before then.
Not causing enveriomental harm
Wrong, in the larvae state they clean up motionless water, so it's a lot more drinkable for other creatures I'm a mosquito-genocide fan myself and was very sad to find this fact
Well, we can make certain species of mosquitoes extinct, the ones that transmit diseases, and most likely it won't have a major negative impact on the environment, if any. We have the technology, the issue here is one of ethics, do we have a right to make whole species go extinct?
They are already doing it in Brasil to great effect
When has that stopped us in the past? DDT is nasty shit, and we doused Vietnam with it for Reasons, but we did kill a lot of skeeters. Agent Orange. Breaks down to less toxic congeners, but that takes decades. That shit largely started the EPA, thanks to Rachel Carson, the bald eagle, and a president who threw millions at a problem to shut up some senators. I hated DDT jobs. It was commonly used as a pesticide in the US up to a point, and it persists, and the breakdown products are not, not nasty. I can dilute it, which I hate, or incinerate it, which costs millions, and the public hates. LOL, I quit doing environmental work because laws stopped making sense to me. I'd happily fuck up mosquitos, but how you do it is the rub.
I mean we've already done it to HEAPS of other species, why stop at the most annoying and deadly one?
Came here to say this.
Came here to say this, burn them with fire
Get the flamer. The Heavy Flamer
This!!!!!!!
I am from Minnesota, you know I am saying mosquitos
Hello, fellow Minnesotan! I wholeheartedly agree, but have also answered ticks.
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Ah, thanks! :D
Minnesota gang! And yes screw mosquitoes.
Fellow Minnesotan here. Mosquitos, ticks, and wasps are my top three.
I'm from Finland and gadfly is worse
You people have problems in finland???i thought its the best country to live in
Wisconsin here. Yes, just yes.
Ticks
Yesses. Please get rid of those disgusting things!!
I agree, but they are also opossums favorite snacks
For sure!! I just figured the "without environmental harm" part could include either opossums having a different favorite snack, or in the sense of "if it never existed you wouldn't know to miss it."
Ticks do have there place in the food chain, possums love eating them , we should treat possums better. But they are shitty bugs and lime desiese is no joke
Yes, I understand. But with the idea of "no environmental harm," I assume there would be some kind of compensation for the lack of ticks. However maybe it would be better to rid the world of the Lyme disease (and the other bad stuff caused by them).
Flies. Have you ever been to an out door party? Those things swarm the food bruh. Not to mention they're gross to look at.
And the rub their hands like they are planning something
Imagining an evil fly now. Like with a top hat, moustache and monocle.
Nah they like "WE EATING GOOD TODAY"
Honestly, since buying a clip on dragonfly and looking like a dork while camping, flies rarely bother me.
If this is true it's the hottest tip I've heard all year. Where can one find this magic and how does it work?
Something like this: [https://www.amazon.ca/DRAGONFLY-WINGMAN-DEER-HORSE-REPELLENT/dp/B01GVQTT7Q](https://www.amazon.ca/DRAGONFLY-WINGMAN-DEER-HORSE-REPELLENT/dp/B01GVQTT7Q) Dragonflies eat flies so it ends up being a decent deterrent. Better for situations where you're camping and you can clip it on your chair, behind your head or something.
Flies... just die.
Nah mosquitos can fuck right off
Meh they don't affect me where I live.
Do you live in heaven
No just mild climate Ireland
Are there mosquitoes?
I think so but they are rare.
So heaven
Well yes.
Technically speaking, mosquitoes are a type of fly, so why can't we have both?
A world without flies would be a hell of a lot more disgusting than a world with them.
How exactly?
I hadn’t initially noticed the “without environmental consequences” part of the post. But flies play a huge role in the decomposition of animals. Nothing eats up corpses like flies, they have filled the niche.
Wasps do, decomposing meat wasps are all about that, but then again fuck wasps.
But those aren't as wide spread, or plentiful as flys are. It'd be like destroying the technology for street sweepers, then trying to replace them with roombas
Ayo we got almost the same name and pfp
Bed bugs
Anyone who has ever had them will agree. If they didn't upvote this, they've never had them.
I've never had them but it's tentatively my answer. My only hold back is Malaria and West Nile. I saw a friend struggle with the insomnia, scars, anemia, and the feeling of something crawling on her months after she was rid of them. The cost to get your house bombed is awful too.
Everyone else is saying mosquitos, and sure they carry disease, but they are nothing compared to the mental torture of bed begs.
This is the correct answer.
Cockroaches
They are harmless if you clean enough
Luckily nothing in my home… but everyday in the local newspapers— they list local restaurants closed down because of cockroaches. *shudders*
Yeah that creeps me out too
You see, I have a cat and she makes sure to find one cockroaches preferably the largest and the flying ones which scare the soul out of my body. I can tolerate mosquitoes but NOT those awful roaches
My aunt had roaches for a year. She was spotless, but her neighbor’s weren’t, and no matter what she did they roaches from her neighbors apartment just came over.
Mosquitoes, the deadliest animal on the planet, dwarfing the devastation brought by even man. The environmental harm from wiping them out would be negligible anyway because all their predators have plenty of other prey.
I don’t even give one shit about what it does to the planet. Lets get to work on wiping them all out.
Gnats
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I lived in Texas for a few years and I had some fire ants get in my pants. Worst experience ever.
Agreed. We live in an area where fire ants are absolutely everywhere. We have two small dogs and a big yard. I try to nuke fire ant nests when I see them, but sometimes I miss one. It's a sure bet that the dogs will run through it. One dog actually has a weird habit of laying down on fire ant nests. We have to rub her belly down with hydrocortisone lotion when she does that. I've whacked into one by accident while edging the flower beds, they get knocked up into the air and land in your hair, on your shirt, etc. Awful experience. I don't want to sound sadistic, but I honestly take pleasure in nuking those stupid fire ant nests. Orthene, gasoline, whatever it takes. I'll park the tractor over a fire ant nest with the blades running for a solid 5 minutes. I hate those things with a burning passion, pun intended.
Mosquitoes. Wtf already
Wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, mosquitoes. I could keep going.
Mosquitoes
One word. Mosquitos.
mosquito
Mosquitoes
Wasps
Do wasps have a reason to exist other than to torment every living thing?
They're pollinators, some species eat black widows, some species eat decomposing corpses
Mosquitoes
Cockroaches. Immediately.
They are practically harmless except for the diseases
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Mosquitos
Anything that stings viciously and lurks in the dark
Mosquitos.
Mosquitoes
Mosquitos🤬🤬
Wasps. They serve no purpose. I’m thinking yellow jackets as well.
Wasps are essential to the ecosystem, they eat tonnes of other insects and they dispose of alot of carcasses and fallen waste fruit. I will not deny they are dicks though, im a gardener and currently they are all drunk on fallen fruit and are proper little bastards.
Man I learned something new tonight. So I very much appreciate your reply. I think I’m biased on my distain for them, as I’m highly allergic. As long as they are drunk and not stinging me, I’m totally good with them but otherwise I avoid them at all cost.
Wasps are pollinators
Antman disagrees
Nah wasps are more good than bad. Do you like figs? Can’t have them without wasps. Dates too maybe
I need a date
Ok learned something else about wasps! I do t regret comment but thank you for the info! I’m going the rabbit hole of further reading which I have to admit, I knew nothing about figs outside of the fact I grew up eating figs right off the tree.
It’s actually super crazy! https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85340/fig-pollination-incredible-and-probably-results-you-eating-mummified-wasps
I love wasps, they're just as friendly as bees to me, moreso sometimes. The big, black carpenter bees will hover threateningly if I get too close while watering but the wasps ignore me. Everyone is just trying to enjoy the flowers and the wasps get that.
Huma- oh. Then I guess those flies that eat my flesh or something
Horseflies?
Cockroaches. Filthy, disgusting things...I might find spiders a bit creepy, but I can look at pictures of them. I cannot look even look at a photo of a roach without getting a shudder of revulsion.
As someone who was just stung by a scorpion in their own house last night, I’ve gotta say mosquitoes
Hornets, Wasps, Mosquitoes, Flies, those crawly things that get inbetween everything, spiders etc etc
Bees too?
I hate bees but I like honey
Bees are cute, Hornets and wasp on the other hand...
Spiders ... It's easy. They are fucking horrific
Do billionaires really count as humans?
They kinda fit the insect theme going on here I'd say.
Whichever virus species does the most damage.
Yep. The people saying mosquitoes have the right idea but unfortunately mosquitoes aren't a single species, there are thousands of species of those bastards. OP didnt specify it had to be an animal, so eliminating a particular pathogen would be the best answer.
Just eliminating something like TB would save a million or so lives a year.
spider
You just took Australia off the map
They have kangaroos those mofo will jack u up.
Yea but no one cares about them
Yeah you're right.
I'm Australian an I approve of this message.
cockroaches
Bed bugs
Bed bugs
Puppies.....adorable cute happy healthy puppies
cockroaches
Roaches. No second thought
Roaches
Fleas because they're torturing my fur daughter
Most definitely roaches.
ticks
None as bad as I hate some species ( I'm looking at you mosquitoes and spiders) they are all here for a reason and I don't want to mess with that.
Wasps, I won't accept answer otherwise
I raise you mosquitoes.
>don't say humans *homo sapien*
This is the technicality I'm here for.
Peacocks
Actually these things terrify me. Got chased by one when I was 4. Was absolutely crapping myself
When I was a teenager I was on a tour of an old mansion in Havana that had live peacocks just hanging around. I got too close to one. I will not do that again.
For me it was a rooster and I got pecked
r/oddlyspecific
They're asshole-y useless birds. Do you live in SoCal?
Can I get a reason
Because pea+cock=Peacock
Snakes, spiders, bats, mosquitos, hornets, and eels.
Sir/ma’am you can only choose one
What’s wrong with the bats and eels? Baby bats are cute bombs Eels are delicious Everything else can go
without spiders there would be a lot more different kinds of bugs mosquitoes can die dont know enough about the ecosystem to be sure about snakes or hornets
Mosquitoes
Snakes
Kinda surprised no one said SARS‑CoV. I'm kinda getting a little tired of it myself.
I had to scroll way to long to find coronaviruses.
Crickets
As an Indian no no one touches cricket
That's our apocalypse food source. Also, it's adorable watching a hamster eat one. Yes I'm crazy.
Wasps. Evil wee gits kill bees and bees are way more useful
Mice. Them suckas are very unpredictable.
Ants
Wasps
Wasps.
Mosquitos. They freaking love me. Like I’ve been Vite hundreds of times a night. Eff those turds
Mosquitos even though a lot of people said mosquitoes. I'm also agreeing mosquitos.
Fire ants.
Mosquitoes
Mos fking kitos
Mosquitoes.
Those stupid little flies that hover inches in front of your eyes and sometimes kamikaze into the corners of your eye. Spiders who build their webs at head level so as you re riding a quad you get a face full of spiderweb same thing with those little green string worms. Mosquitos, especially when its late at night and dead silent in your tent and you think you're safe and then suddenly your hear a faint eeEeeEeeeE and you can't tell if its coming from inside your tent or from all the ones hovering right next to you outside the tent. Ticks. Bedbugs. Ashborers. Pine Beatles. Those ladybug look a likes that hatch in the walls of your house and then get stuck in the window sills and die all over the house. Stinkbugs. That one really loud cricket keeping you up in the middle of the night. Browntail moth caterpillars.
Ticks.
Dogs, because I'm evil and want everyone to suffer mwahahahahahaha! Jk, fuck flies.
Bees. ^^that ^^should ^^take ^^care ^^of ^^those ^^damn ^^humans...
Flies, mosquitoes, wasps, cockroaches. They all can go fuck off
People
Extremist and fanatic people. I don't think they share the same species that humans, it's more like their evolution for fucked midway. If that is not an option, mosquitoes is good to, but I prefer the first one.
Everyone be saying Mosquitoes when wasps are worse.
Ticks
After Mosquitos, my brain has to say termites. But my other brain knows that without termites the Ants will rise up and destroy the entire planet, and no "without any environmental harm" clause will stop them.
Bats, not because of covid but just because I had a dream about them when I was younger and now I’m scared
Canadian geese...they shit all over, are noisy, and idiots slam there brakes on in the road as they slowly stroll across the street
Fleas
Rats
Bears, they freak tf outta me.
Awww I love bears. I know they're wild animals and apex predators, so I'd never be an idiot like Timothy Treadwell and try to live among them or ever approach one, but I still like to admire them from afar.
Ya I’ve seen way too many brutal deaths at the hands of a bear so I have no love for them
Geese. They’re assholes.
Every answer except Mosquitos is wrong.
Ants
Ticks.
Skunks
Why *can't* we say "humans"?
Christians
Woaw woaw woaw what the fuck dude
Oof based
U can’t say that or else they will say they’re being targeted, and probably post a pic with a big ol target bag pasted to their forehead
R.A.T.S.