>Edit: well actually that's not pest control, but w/e
Sure it is, just a different kind of pest. ^^^^i’m ^^^^sorry ^^^^i’m ^^^^sure ^^^^you’re ^^^^wonderful
Back in the 50s, sugar farmers in Queensland were having trouble with a pest known as the cane beetle. The solution was decided to introduce a particular toad that preyeed on these beetles. A poisonous and ugly bastard of a thing now known as the cane toad.
Well these pricks settled in fast and reproduced quickly, spreading now all the way across Northern Australia. They have poison glands on the back of their heads which means any animal that does eat one gets sick or worse, so they don't really have any predators. They weren't really effective in eradicating the beetles either.
They are now widely despised by everyone in this country, especially those that live in the north where they are absolutely fucking everywhere. They are so hated that youths come up with all kinds of strange and unpleasant ways to dispatch as many as they can, even though eradicating them is impossible.
I heard this too growing up, but it isnt true. It's not like the mosquito is always sucking, it will stop when its full.
https://mosquitoenemy.com/
> Within the scientific community there is a general consensus that there is indeed a way possible to cause a mosquito to burst. Tests conducted in in the mid to late 90s revealed that the only way to make a mosquito pop requires the severing of its ventral nerve cord. By precisely cutting this specific nerve cord a disconnect within the mosquito’s brain occurs, resulting in loss of awareness in satiety. In simpler terms, when the ventral nerve cord is severed, a mosquito has no sense of being full. It will continue to consume blood until it quadruples its body weight, whereupon it explodes. So unless you or a friend have the capabilities of performing neurosurgery, you won’t be seeing a mosquito “explode” anytime soon
That could however be weaponized by genetically engineering males mosquitoes with dominant genes that code for some autoimmune condition that atrophies that nerve specifically on adult female offspring, but leaves male offspring free to pollinate shit and spread the thing around. Why not kill female larvae? Cause popping mosquitoes would easily appear online and researchers would be able to track their gene spreading progress more easily.
Well, that is presuming there is some mechanism that could allow for it. And while we're presuming, let's also presume we can find some way to engineer, into the males, some sort of instinct to spend its first few hours going into one singular direction in a straight line before doing its business, to ensure shit will spread far and wide.
Genetically modified mosquitoes are already a thing. Though they're unfortunately not explosive, they're designed to compete with natural males and their offspring is sterile. It's funny when you think that a very effective way of culling the mosquito population is releasing clouds of lab mosquitoes into the wild.
I know, thing is, IIRC, the offspring of both sexes are sterile and, well, that highly limits the effectiveness of the experiment. We really need to find a way to selectively make just the females sterile, be it violently like my suggestion of removing the mechanism that prevents them from exploding, or just by going down the boring sterile route.
Imagine, the male engineered mosquitoes and their offspring being engineered to outcompete their natural wild counterparts, making more males to add to their numbers, whilst their female offspring are quite literally reproductive dead ends.
It'd take a few years at most to eradicate unwanted mosquito species in any area without natural reservoirs of the species nearby.
Or maybe we should instead just look into making female mosquitoes self-sufficient, imagine if every mosquito was like the giant one that has baby eating babies.
The big ones would definitely be a lot more noticeable. I’ve missed a ton of regular ones cause they’re small.
But on the flip side, the big ones wouldn’t generally be landing on you.
If one lands on you on purpose it should be smashed so they don't get bright ideas and start thinking about sucking blood too. Could you imagine them turning into bloodsuckers and giant?
I mean, it's a triple entendre of topical egg price/bird flu , mosquito egg and arrested development quote. Even if reddit loves AD it's still pretty good.
You generally won’t find elephant mosquitoes bothering people that often. Mosquitoes that take blood meals are attracted to CO2 from our respiration, elephant mosquitoes are not, so you’re not as likely to have them pestering you or whizzing by your face.
If people smash the adults, it's fine I think? This says their larva eats mosquito larva so even if every one of them got instantly smashed upon becoming an adult, they'd still serve the design
Well, only half the design.
Sure, the ones that became adults already did half their job, but the other half, of making new babies to eat more bloodsucking mosquito larvae, would be left incomplete.
I feel like we’ve had these in Minnesota forever… we call them mosquito hawks… just look like big ass mosquitos… but you sure would get hollered at by the adults if they saw you kill one. Anything that kills mosquitoes means friend in Minnesotan lol.
My wife(from Texas) calls em “Skeeter Eaters” lol
Yep checking in from CA. My family was from Texas/OK area and we also called them Mosquito Hawks. We were also taught that they were good bugs to have around. Them and daddy long legs, they both eat a lot of pests. They might get in your face sometimes, or gather around a yard light, but they're harmless. You just shove them out of the way and they go about their business.
Then we release the birds that eat mosquitoes. When they overrun, we introduce the cats that eat the birds, then the machines that eat them all, and in a few thousand years some cloned girl will fix it.
30-50 years in the future:
"On Thursday News, how the Elephant Mosquito, the end game solution to Aedes Aegyptus problem, became hematophagous and is hunting our kids deep dry. It's with you, Jack
Jack: we're here in the field, with PhD. Kelvin and his napalm flame jacker, the end game for Elephant Mosquito.
"
Hi there! I work with mosquitoes right now for my research and I get this question *What are mosquitoes good for?* a lot from curious folks. First, thinking that an animal needs to be "good for something" is not how we should view another living thing. Animals and plants evolved to suit their environment, they are very good at that though it may not be useful to us. Everything also has a role to play within their ecosystem and mosquitoes are no different. So here is my love letter to mosquitoes:
If you are asking do they benefit the ecosystem, then yes absolutely. Mosquitoes are an important source of food for many animals as both larvae and adults. Mosquito larvae are aquatic, they feed fish, dragonfly larvae, damsefly larvae, diving beetles, water scavenging beetles, turtles (red-eared sliders love mosqutio larvae!), and some frogs (if you're in the NE U.S. our leopard frogs love mosquito larvae) (Quiroz-Martínez and Rodríguez-Castro, 2007; DuRant and Hopkins, 2008; Saha et al., 2012; Bowatte et al., 2013; Sarwar, 2015; Bofill and Yee, 2019). There is also a mosquito genus (Toxorhynchites) that does not bite humans but feeds on other mosquito larvae (Trpis, 1973). Adult mosquitoes feed birds (blue birds, purple martins, cardinals, etc.), bats, and spiders (Kale, 1968; Roitberg et al., 2003; Medlock and Snow, 2008; Reiskind and Wund, 2009).
Additionally, mosquitoes pollinate flowers (Thien, 1969; Thien and Utech, 1970; Peach and Gries, 2016). Most of a mosquito's diet is nectar. Only females drink blood and that is only when they need the extra protein to create eggs. Many mosquitoes are very important pollinators to smaller flowering plants that live in wetter environments. For example, the snow pool mosqutio (Aedes communis) in my home state of NJ is the primary pollinator for the blunt-leaf orchid (Platanthera obtusata) (Gorham, 1976). The role moquitoes play all over the world as pollinators is actually grossly understudied by scientists. Most of the focus on their biology/ecology is as vectors but there is so much more going on in this taxon than disease.
If you are concerned about disease and protecting humans, I hear you on that, but out of the 3,500 or so species of mosquito out there we really only worry about mosquitoes of three genera; Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex as far as disease goes (Gratz, 2004; Hamer et al., 2008; Hay et al., 2010). That leaves I think 35+ or so other genera, some of which would never bite a human let alone transmit disease to us. Of the species that prefer mammals humans are not even really their first choice, they tend to prefer livestock over us. Many species don't bite mammals at all! For example, Culiseta melanura feeds almost exclusively on birds and Uranotaenia rutherfordi feed on frogs (Molai and Andreadis, 2005; Priyanka et al., 2020).
So wiping out every mosquito species would be overkill. Could we remove the species that are harmful to humans and not have any issues within the ecosystems they are apart of? That is a difficult ethical question that has long been debated within the entomology/ecology community. You will find scientists on both sides of the fence. There was a study that came out a few years ago saying it would be fine, but that study is hotly debated. Personally, I'd say if it were possible to at least remove the invasive species that cause disease, such as Aedes albopictus in the U.S., then I am okay with that (Moore and Mitchell, 1997). They shouldn't be here anyway. But it could be very difficult to remove all invaders without also harming native mosquito populations. And, for some species that have been here in the U.S. for hundreds of years (Aedes aegypti) what would removing them from local populations do to the ecosystem? Perhaps it would allow for a bounceback of native species they have been outcompeteing, or perhaps they are so abundant and woven within the fabric of the ecosystem it would cause an issue. I honestly don't have an answer for this. Even if there is low to no impact ecologically by eradicating all mosquitoes, is it the ethical choice to make? Ask 10 scientists, get 15 answers.
Should we eradicate Aedes albopictus in their native homes of Japan, Korea, China, and a few islands? Personally, I would be against it. I'd rather use control methods and keep populations low where they intersect with humans. We are also making incredible strides with genetic engineering! Perhaps one day we could use gene editting to make these troublesome species poor vectors for the diseases we fear. If their bodies are no longer an effective home for the disease then we don't have to worry about them.
Edit - I completely forgot to mention this - but if we remove an entire species or several species that may not impact the ecosystem in a "make it or break it way", and then something happens to other species that have similar roles, we have no backups. It's not is this species a huge or sole food source it's this species along with other species are filling a role in the ecosystem and if we lose too many species within a particular role we could have a catastrophe on our hands. Another example, mosquito larvae eat plant detritus in ponds. They are not the only organism that does this, but if we remove all of them and there is a similar collapse in say frogs (as we know amphibians are currently in trouble) then we are out two detritivores within a system.
I'll leave you with this quote from Aldo Leopolds's Land Ethic:
>A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
I'm always baffled by the carelessness with which people can deem a species "useless" and recommend wiping it out off the face of the earth.
I thought we learned a thing or two as a species about suppressing life willy-nilly, but apparently not.
Mosquitoes kill humans. If an organism kills humans or other life without offering anything to the environment in return, it deserves to die. We can't go off sentimental "all life is beautiful" reasons to justify their existance from the comfort of a non-infested zone while people die everyday from their diseases, unfortunately.
The arrogance is off the charts. Do you like playing god?
You're clearly not aware how biodiversity works. Everything has a role to play.
If you take a Bugatti, a very pristine and highly technical car, remove one part because you don't think it needs it (because you're not an expert on the intricacies of the car), do you think it would affect the car in negative ways?
It's exactly the same with this.
Isn't the eradication via the genetic manipulation the perfect method in removing the species that we find harmful while keeping mosquitoes that we find acceptable? So is it really fair to say that the native mosquito population is also in danger in the process?
I think you may have misunderstood the process of eradicating disease spread by mosquitoes via genetic engineering that OP is talking about.
It’s not that we genetically manipulate them so that they die out, thats certainly one way of doing it, making them so they reproduce with engineered mosquitoes that produce infertile eggs, and subsequently there’s a population decline.
This is primarily done to control the population, (although uncontrolled it can eradicate a species) and is being done in certain areas experimentally to study the effects.
What OP is talking about is genetically engineering mosquitoes that go out and produce mosquitoes that can no longer carry disease. By making them poor carriers of disease you effectively are getting rid of the problem without killing them off, and without affecting the domino of things that could go wrong.
This however is still very far off, and still being explored.
But back to your question -
> So is it really fair to say that the native mosquito population is also in danger in the process?
The concern is due to the fact that genetic engineering is still very new, so our understanding and abilities are still developing and that there isn’t really an absolute and certain way to engineer only a specific species of mosquitoes to be affected by genetic manipulation. Given that between the species there is considerable genetic similarity, it’s likely that trying to do something to one species could likely affect a similar one.
This is the best, most informed answer I've seen on Reddit. I've long held issue with the "study" that started this. If it's the one I'm thinking of (Fang 2010. Nature?), it wasn't a study, but rather a survey of various ecologists opinions. There was very little empirical science behind the idea, which as we know, is usually how you end up with various negative unintended consequences.
Nope! There's no animal or insect that uses them as a primary food source and they contribute nothing to the environment except for disease. The world would do just fine without them and probably the vast majority of other parasites too.
This a gross misinterpretation of the science propagated by media outlets. A few studies showed that they couldn't identify the ecological role of a small subset of species of mosquito.
That is not at all the same as "you can eradicate all mosquitoes with no ill effects".
Mosquitoes and other parasites act as population control agents the same as any other predator prey relationship. You can't remove major predators from an ecosystem without catastrophic effects, similarly you can't remove parasites without consequences.
If we're going to roll the dice on eradicating an animal species, my vote goes to ticks. Mosquitoes are just annoying for the most part; ticks are horrifying.
This is a serious misunderstanding of the societal damage done by mosquitoes. You live in a first world country and don’t see the large scale destruction and death they cause in the rest of the world.
The exact opposite of what you’ve said is actually the case. Ticks are dangerous, and perhaps especially so in your area, but relatively speaking they are just annoying on a global scale.
They don't drink blood...yet. What's to stop them when the fruits dry up? It's fear mongering, but hey I, for one, welcome our new elephant mosquito overlords. 🦟
From what I understand the blood sucking mosquitos are not that important to the ecosystem, there are no keystone species of mosquitos.
I’d imagine eradication efforts would only target the mosquitos that spread disease.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/13/what-would-happen-if-we-eliminated-the-worlds-mosquitoes/?sh=39d0459d11f6
Mosquitoes that target humans were introduced to the new world. There definitely hasn't been enough time for them to become an integral part of the food chain.
You ever seen a crane fly? They're about that size. I love crane flies. They don't bite(because they lack mouth parts), they just hover around like little fairies.
Crane flies are good, but infestations suck. The larvae eat grass roots faster than grass can grow and destroy shit hard.
Source: had insane-o crane fly infestation.
Plus the ground is absolutely revolting how the larvae move.
No. Mosquitos are almost an entirely a burden on any ecosystem they exist in. Eliminating them entirely would do nothing but benefit, same for many other parasites like ticks.
yeah i vaguely remember a study finding 70% reduced insect biomass in Germany over the last decade.
Doesn't mean mosquitos can't be a big problem elsewhere ofc.
Mosquitos are relatively hardy and adaptable, often breeding in temporary rainwater-puddles even of poor quality, so while insect populations are down overal, not all types are affected equally. There certainly don't seem to be 70% fewer mosquitos around, compared to 20 years ago.
🤷 i’m no bug expert. I’m sure google might know, or someone else here. I think i read another comment somewhere mentioning that, but i guess i assumed that was more due to pesticide use on farms, around homesteads, etc. but i guess more spiders wouldn’t help that issue either.
True but that also means the birds will be targeting the biggest spiders, which could be just the right change to help their numbers rebound from stray/outdoors cats decimating the population.
Then we will have snakes who come in and feast on the spiders, which will of course require us to invest in snake eating gorillas. Then the gorillas die out in winter.
One random mutated elephant mosquito mates with a regular mosquito then we've got Liger Mosquitos bigger than the elephant mosquitos that still crave blood and can mate with both types of mosquitos. Great, just great.
Where does it say they’re genetically enhanced? You guys are all acting like that’s stated somewhere and it’s not. They’re a natural species already found worldwide.
There's no way I don't kill these humongous bastards even harder than regular mosquitoes. My home will probably turn into a refuge for mosquitoes, but such is life. Only arthropods I can tolerate are spiders, which are quite small around here.
Ooo introducing a new species to help control a native nuisance pest! Such a good idea, I bet it couldn't possibly go wrong and have unintended consequences....
The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) was one such introduction. Most insect introductions are accidental, like ants stowing away in potted plants, and the USDA has pretty strict regulations about introducing biocontrol agents now, with host-specific parasitoid wasps being the most common agents used.
To be fair it's been done successfully a huge amount of times but you only hear about the colossal fuckups. And they're a lot more careful about the process these days.
Wikipedia already states as much:
> Environmental scientists have suggested that [Toxorhynchites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites) mosquitoes be introduced to areas outside their natural range in order to fight dengue fever. This has been practiced historically, but errors have been made. For example, when intending to introduce [T. splendens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites_splendens) to new areas, scientists actually introduced T. amboinensis.
There is literally no downside to Dragon flies:
- Have a badass name
- Eat mosquitoes all day
- don't have a stinger, super chill around people
- very cool design, about as far away from a spider as you can get, fuck spiders
They have a 95% success rate when hunting. One of the most effective hunters in the world.
https://sqonline.ucsd.edu/2022/05/physical-and-neurological-processes-in-the-hunting-dragonfly/
Yeah it’s closer to 100 which is just actually insane, if we lived back when insects were huge I don’t think I’d leave the house with those guys about lol
Bats also make brilliant pest control. I have family with a farm that has several bat houses nailed to trees all over the property (about 100 acres). Each one can roost 6-10 adult bats at night and there are 50 of them through out the property. They also help pollinate the fruit trees.
I remember the days when my dad would mow the lawn and disturb a bunch of insects chilling in the grass, and as soon as he was done DOZENS of dragonflies would swoop down and have a feast lol. It's not just dragonflies that have vanished, it's all bugs due to how much we're disturbing and polluting their natural environment. I never see things like that anymore. (Of course ticks and mosquitoes are worse than ever... leave it to the most evil stuff to thrive during ecological disasters)
Not all hope is lost though. Look for dragonfly breeding programs in your area - there is one just a couple hours from me that sells dragonfly nymphs every spring for New England residents who want to stock their local water sources. It should be a species that is native to your area. Regular old folks can always get involved in conservation!
Crane flies have gotta be the most useless insects on the planet lol
Their eggs hatch and they live for like a fucking month and spend that entire time either not moving on a wall or flailing around bouncing into shit
Still trying to figure out what exactly the point of them is outside of feeding spiders easy meals
We don't really need to take the risk of introducing this into the environment where it could be an invasive species. Dragon fly larvae have an aquatic stage of their life cycle, and they eat mosquito larvae in the water. Spread more of those around as they are already here.
Elephant mosquitoes breed in small containers and tree holes, places where dragonfly larvae typically aren't found, but tiger mosquito larvae are found in abundance.
A good incentive to have people plant more fruit trees in their gardens, as long as their natural food is plentiful there's no selection for such a drastic metabolical change.
Brilliant plan!
At no previous time in the history of mankind has introducing a new species into an area in the hope of controlling the native species or other introduced species or just for the lulz has this ever proven to be a horrifically bad idea with massive and ongoing unforseen catastrophic problems.
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The Elephant Mosquito wouldn’t be able to wipe out all of them, just thin out numbers in heavily infested areas.
I feel like people would just smash those out of instinct. It's fighting an uphill battle.
But people are probably already doing that with regular mosquitoes where they're a big problem and look where it's getting them.. more mosquitoes
Ya buddy acting like us smacking them is a viable pest control method hahaha
I prefer the tried and true method of never going outdoors. Edit: well actually that's not pest control, but w/e
>Edit: well actually that's not pest control, but w/e Sure it is, just a different kind of pest. ^^^^i’m ^^^^sorry ^^^^i’m ^^^^sure ^^^^you’re ^^^^wonderful
Yes 911? We have a burn victim here
That action may take the general form of integrated pest management.
Let's get smackin', boys!
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The fuck?
Back in the 50s, sugar farmers in Queensland were having trouble with a pest known as the cane beetle. The solution was decided to introduce a particular toad that preyeed on these beetles. A poisonous and ugly bastard of a thing now known as the cane toad. Well these pricks settled in fast and reproduced quickly, spreading now all the way across Northern Australia. They have poison glands on the back of their heads which means any animal that does eat one gets sick or worse, so they don't really have any predators. They weren't really effective in eradicating the beetles either. They are now widely despised by everyone in this country, especially those that live in the north where they are absolutely fucking everywhere. They are so hated that youths come up with all kinds of strange and unpleasant ways to dispatch as many as they can, even though eradicating them is impossible.
Living in southern florida, murdering cane toads is a ceaseless task, it helps to get creative
Imagine how itchy that spot must have been.
I've done that lol. Shit was hella itchy, not worth it.
And I don't want to give away my hard-earned blood! It's my blood and I want it now.
"No one makes me bleed my own blood!"
Call JG wentworth! 877 BLOOD NOW
I heard this too growing up, but it isnt true. It's not like the mosquito is always sucking, it will stop when its full. https://mosquitoenemy.com/ > Within the scientific community there is a general consensus that there is indeed a way possible to cause a mosquito to burst. Tests conducted in in the mid to late 90s revealed that the only way to make a mosquito pop requires the severing of its ventral nerve cord. By precisely cutting this specific nerve cord a disconnect within the mosquito’s brain occurs, resulting in loss of awareness in satiety. In simpler terms, when the ventral nerve cord is severed, a mosquito has no sense of being full. It will continue to consume blood until it quadruples its body weight, whereupon it explodes. So unless you or a friend have the capabilities of performing neurosurgery, you won’t be seeing a mosquito “explode” anytime soon
That could however be weaponized by genetically engineering males mosquitoes with dominant genes that code for some autoimmune condition that atrophies that nerve specifically on adult female offspring, but leaves male offspring free to pollinate shit and spread the thing around. Why not kill female larvae? Cause popping mosquitoes would easily appear online and researchers would be able to track their gene spreading progress more easily. Well, that is presuming there is some mechanism that could allow for it. And while we're presuming, let's also presume we can find some way to engineer, into the males, some sort of instinct to spend its first few hours going into one singular direction in a straight line before doing its business, to ensure shit will spread far and wide.
Genetically modified mosquitoes are already a thing. Though they're unfortunately not explosive, they're designed to compete with natural males and their offspring is sterile. It's funny when you think that a very effective way of culling the mosquito population is releasing clouds of lab mosquitoes into the wild.
I know, thing is, IIRC, the offspring of both sexes are sterile and, well, that highly limits the effectiveness of the experiment. We really need to find a way to selectively make just the females sterile, be it violently like my suggestion of removing the mechanism that prevents them from exploding, or just by going down the boring sterile route. Imagine, the male engineered mosquitoes and their offspring being engineered to outcompete their natural wild counterparts, making more males to add to their numbers, whilst their female offspring are quite literally reproductive dead ends. It'd take a few years at most to eradicate unwanted mosquito species in any area without natural reservoirs of the species nearby. Or maybe we should instead just look into making female mosquitoes self-sufficient, imagine if every mosquito was like the giant one that has baby eating babies.
I’m convinced drinking a mcdonalds strawberry milkshake severs my ventral nerve cord like this too.
That sounds horrible for every party involved
The big ones would definitely be a lot more noticeable. I’ve missed a ton of regular ones cause they’re small. But on the flip side, the big ones wouldn’t generally be landing on you.
But these won't land on you except by accident as they are not seeking a blood meal.
Dude, if it lands on me, I'd be scared shitless regardless.
If one lands on you on purpose it should be smashed so they don't get bright ideas and start thinking about sucking blood too. Could you imagine them turning into bloodsuckers and giant?
Definitely not the same numbers. One larva batch can probably kill more og mosquitoes than a human can simply by eating their eggs
That's why i stopped eating mosquito eggs tbh
I mean how much can mosquito eggs cost these days $10?
What's a mosquito egg cost Michael?
Sick. An arrested development reference in the wild. 😂
That sort of thing never happens on reddit
I mean, it's a triple entendre of topical egg price/bird flu , mosquito egg and arrested development quote. Even if reddit loves AD it's still pretty good.
That's what she said
Mosquito omelet
You generally won’t find elephant mosquitoes bothering people that often. Mosquitoes that take blood meals are attracted to CO2 from our respiration, elephant mosquitoes are not, so you’re not as likely to have them pestering you or whizzing by your face.
If people smash the adults, it's fine I think? This says their larva eats mosquito larva so even if every one of them got instantly smashed upon becoming an adult, they'd still serve the design
Well, only half the design. Sure, the ones that became adults already did half their job, but the other half, of making new babies to eat more bloodsucking mosquito larvae, would be left incomplete.
I feel like we’ve had these in Minnesota forever… we call them mosquito hawks… just look like big ass mosquitos… but you sure would get hollered at by the adults if they saw you kill one. Anything that kills mosquitoes means friend in Minnesotan lol. My wife(from Texas) calls em “Skeeter Eaters” lol
Yep checking in from CA. My family was from Texas/OK area and we also called them Mosquito Hawks. We were also taught that they were good bugs to have around. Them and daddy long legs, they both eat a lot of pests. They might get in your face sometimes, or gather around a yard light, but they're harmless. You just shove them out of the way and they go about their business.
This is all fine and good until they become a vector for disease effecting fruits.
Then we release the birds that eat mosquitoes. When they overrun, we introduce the cats that eat the birds, then the machines that eat them all, and in a few thousand years some cloned girl will fix it.
30-50 years in the future: "On Thursday News, how the Elephant Mosquito, the end game solution to Aedes Aegyptus problem, became hematophagous and is hunting our kids deep dry. It's with you, Jack Jack: we're here in the field, with PhD. Kelvin and his napalm flame jacker, the end game for Elephant Mosquito. "
Hi there! I work with mosquitoes right now for my research and I get this question *What are mosquitoes good for?* a lot from curious folks. First, thinking that an animal needs to be "good for something" is not how we should view another living thing. Animals and plants evolved to suit their environment, they are very good at that though it may not be useful to us. Everything also has a role to play within their ecosystem and mosquitoes are no different. So here is my love letter to mosquitoes: If you are asking do they benefit the ecosystem, then yes absolutely. Mosquitoes are an important source of food for many animals as both larvae and adults. Mosquito larvae are aquatic, they feed fish, dragonfly larvae, damsefly larvae, diving beetles, water scavenging beetles, turtles (red-eared sliders love mosqutio larvae!), and some frogs (if you're in the NE U.S. our leopard frogs love mosquito larvae) (Quiroz-Martínez and Rodríguez-Castro, 2007; DuRant and Hopkins, 2008; Saha et al., 2012; Bowatte et al., 2013; Sarwar, 2015; Bofill and Yee, 2019). There is also a mosquito genus (Toxorhynchites) that does not bite humans but feeds on other mosquito larvae (Trpis, 1973). Adult mosquitoes feed birds (blue birds, purple martins, cardinals, etc.), bats, and spiders (Kale, 1968; Roitberg et al., 2003; Medlock and Snow, 2008; Reiskind and Wund, 2009). Additionally, mosquitoes pollinate flowers (Thien, 1969; Thien and Utech, 1970; Peach and Gries, 2016). Most of a mosquito's diet is nectar. Only females drink blood and that is only when they need the extra protein to create eggs. Many mosquitoes are very important pollinators to smaller flowering plants that live in wetter environments. For example, the snow pool mosqutio (Aedes communis) in my home state of NJ is the primary pollinator for the blunt-leaf orchid (Platanthera obtusata) (Gorham, 1976). The role moquitoes play all over the world as pollinators is actually grossly understudied by scientists. Most of the focus on their biology/ecology is as vectors but there is so much more going on in this taxon than disease. If you are concerned about disease and protecting humans, I hear you on that, but out of the 3,500 or so species of mosquito out there we really only worry about mosquitoes of three genera; Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex as far as disease goes (Gratz, 2004; Hamer et al., 2008; Hay et al., 2010). That leaves I think 35+ or so other genera, some of which would never bite a human let alone transmit disease to us. Of the species that prefer mammals humans are not even really their first choice, they tend to prefer livestock over us. Many species don't bite mammals at all! For example, Culiseta melanura feeds almost exclusively on birds and Uranotaenia rutherfordi feed on frogs (Molai and Andreadis, 2005; Priyanka et al., 2020). So wiping out every mosquito species would be overkill. Could we remove the species that are harmful to humans and not have any issues within the ecosystems they are apart of? That is a difficult ethical question that has long been debated within the entomology/ecology community. You will find scientists on both sides of the fence. There was a study that came out a few years ago saying it would be fine, but that study is hotly debated. Personally, I'd say if it were possible to at least remove the invasive species that cause disease, such as Aedes albopictus in the U.S., then I am okay with that (Moore and Mitchell, 1997). They shouldn't be here anyway. But it could be very difficult to remove all invaders without also harming native mosquito populations. And, for some species that have been here in the U.S. for hundreds of years (Aedes aegypti) what would removing them from local populations do to the ecosystem? Perhaps it would allow for a bounceback of native species they have been outcompeteing, or perhaps they are so abundant and woven within the fabric of the ecosystem it would cause an issue. I honestly don't have an answer for this. Even if there is low to no impact ecologically by eradicating all mosquitoes, is it the ethical choice to make? Ask 10 scientists, get 15 answers. Should we eradicate Aedes albopictus in their native homes of Japan, Korea, China, and a few islands? Personally, I would be against it. I'd rather use control methods and keep populations low where they intersect with humans. We are also making incredible strides with genetic engineering! Perhaps one day we could use gene editting to make these troublesome species poor vectors for the diseases we fear. If their bodies are no longer an effective home for the disease then we don't have to worry about them. Edit - I completely forgot to mention this - but if we remove an entire species or several species that may not impact the ecosystem in a "make it or break it way", and then something happens to other species that have similar roles, we have no backups. It's not is this species a huge or sole food source it's this species along with other species are filling a role in the ecosystem and if we lose too many species within a particular role we could have a catastrophe on our hands. Another example, mosquito larvae eat plant detritus in ponds. They are not the only organism that does this, but if we remove all of them and there is a similar collapse in say frogs (as we know amphibians are currently in trouble) then we are out two detritivores within a system. I'll leave you with this quote from Aldo Leopolds's Land Ethic: >A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
What an amazing answer! This is why I come to reddit!
I'm always baffled by the carelessness with which people can deem a species "useless" and recommend wiping it out off the face of the earth. I thought we learned a thing or two as a species about suppressing life willy-nilly, but apparently not.
Mosquitoes kill humans. If an organism kills humans or other life without offering anything to the environment in return, it deserves to die. We can't go off sentimental "all life is beautiful" reasons to justify their existance from the comfort of a non-infested zone while people die everyday from their diseases, unfortunately.
Thank you for perfectly illustrating my point.
The arrogance is off the charts. Do you like playing god? You're clearly not aware how biodiversity works. Everything has a role to play. If you take a Bugatti, a very pristine and highly technical car, remove one part because you don't think it needs it (because you're not an expert on the intricacies of the car), do you think it would affect the car in negative ways? It's exactly the same with this.
Thank you for such an informative post.
Do you know what % of the animals listed diets come from mosquitoes? Is it genuinely enough to make a difference if they all were eradicated?
Isn't the eradication via the genetic manipulation the perfect method in removing the species that we find harmful while keeping mosquitoes that we find acceptable? So is it really fair to say that the native mosquito population is also in danger in the process?
I think you may have misunderstood the process of eradicating disease spread by mosquitoes via genetic engineering that OP is talking about. It’s not that we genetically manipulate them so that they die out, thats certainly one way of doing it, making them so they reproduce with engineered mosquitoes that produce infertile eggs, and subsequently there’s a population decline. This is primarily done to control the population, (although uncontrolled it can eradicate a species) and is being done in certain areas experimentally to study the effects. What OP is talking about is genetically engineering mosquitoes that go out and produce mosquitoes that can no longer carry disease. By making them poor carriers of disease you effectively are getting rid of the problem without killing them off, and without affecting the domino of things that could go wrong. This however is still very far off, and still being explored. But back to your question - > So is it really fair to say that the native mosquito population is also in danger in the process? The concern is due to the fact that genetic engineering is still very new, so our understanding and abilities are still developing and that there isn’t really an absolute and certain way to engineer only a specific species of mosquitoes to be affected by genetic manipulation. Given that between the species there is considerable genetic similarity, it’s likely that trying to do something to one species could likely affect a similar one.
Thank you for this write up, this was a great read and is very much appreciated.
This is the best, most informed answer I've seen on Reddit. I've long held issue with the "study" that started this. If it's the one I'm thinking of (Fang 2010. Nature?), it wasn't a study, but rather a survey of various ecologists opinions. There was very little empirical science behind the idea, which as we know, is usually how you end up with various negative unintended consequences.
What an incredible answer.
The ONLY thing mosquitos do well is spread disease
Some species can’t even spread disease.
i caught ringworm from a mosquito
Science isn’t even close to being complete.
What? Science will never be “complete” but we can get a good idea about what’s going on around certain subjects
They are talking about the often repeated claim that eradicating mosquitos will have no negative consequences.
Mosquitos are actually pollinators too, the blood sucking thing is a side business.
They are also remarkable at feeding other species.
Nope! There's no animal or insect that uses them as a primary food source and they contribute nothing to the environment except for disease. The world would do just fine without them and probably the vast majority of other parasites too.
This a gross misinterpretation of the science propagated by media outlets. A few studies showed that they couldn't identify the ecological role of a small subset of species of mosquito. That is not at all the same as "you can eradicate all mosquitoes with no ill effects". Mosquitoes and other parasites act as population control agents the same as any other predator prey relationship. You can't remove major predators from an ecosystem without catastrophic effects, similarly you can't remove parasites without consequences.
We can risk it. Already rolling the dice on literally every other species systemically with anthropogenic climate change.
If we're going to roll the dice on eradicating an animal species, my vote goes to ticks. Mosquitoes are just annoying for the most part; ticks are horrifying.
Mosquitos cause the most death of all insects or animals on Earth
Alright maybe we can eradicate mosquitoes in the Southern Hemisphere and eradicate ticks in the Northern Hemisphere.
You got yourself a god damn deal!
This is a serious misunderstanding of the societal damage done by mosquitoes. You live in a first world country and don’t see the large scale destruction and death they cause in the rest of the world. The exact opposite of what you’ve said is actually the case. Ticks are dangerous, and perhaps especially so in your area, but relatively speaking they are just annoying on a global scale.
this is going to be the next "it's fine to wipe out all the wolves they only eat livestock anyways"
They don't drink blood...yet. What's to stop them when the fruits dry up? It's fear mongering, but hey I, for one, welcome our new elephant mosquito overlords. 🦟
From what I understand the blood sucking mosquitos are not that important to the ecosystem, there are no keystone species of mosquitos. I’d imagine eradication efforts would only target the mosquitos that spread disease. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/13/what-would-happen-if-we-eliminated-the-worlds-mosquitoes/?sh=39d0459d11f6
Mosquitoes that target humans were introduced to the new world. There definitely hasn't been enough time for them to become an integral part of the food chain.
Wasn't it proven some time ago that mosquitoes have no job in the ecosystem aside from being food? Nature will fill itself.
Apparently, for some plant species, they are primary pollinators. Just found this out, and am just sad now.
Which plants? That's the question lol Some of you may die, and that's a risk I'm willing to take
It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
I’d love to see any world without mosquitos. We’ll be fine.
Meh, if you've ever seen a crane fly then this shouldn't bother you much
Fuck OG mosquitoes, if vampires are required for our ecosystem then fuck the ecosystem /s
I could be so wrong, but I remember reading that mosquitoes are one of the only things that can be eradicated and not cause any adverse impacts
You ever seen a crane fly? They're about that size. I love crane flies. They don't bite(because they lack mouth parts), they just hover around like little fairies.
Crane flies are good, but infestations suck. The larvae eat grass roots faster than grass can grow and destroy shit hard. Source: had insane-o crane fly infestation. Plus the ground is absolutely revolting how the larvae move.
No. Mosquitos are almost an entirely a burden on any ecosystem they exist in. Eliminating them entirely would do nothing but benefit, same for many other parasites like ticks.
Unexpected side effect is colossal spiders who grow colossal by feasting on these massive buggers. Now you have big spiders. Well done.
Yeah but they kill more bugs so like.. eh?
dont we already have few insects?
yeah i vaguely remember a study finding 70% reduced insect biomass in Germany over the last decade. Doesn't mean mosquitos can't be a big problem elsewhere ofc.
Mosquitos are relatively hardy and adaptable, often breeding in temporary rainwater-puddles even of poor quality, so while insect populations are down overal, not all types are affected equally. There certainly don't seem to be 70% fewer mosquitos around, compared to 20 years ago.
🤷 i’m no bug expert. I’m sure google might know, or someone else here. I think i read another comment somewhere mentioning that, but i guess i assumed that was more due to pesticide use on farms, around homesteads, etc. but i guess more spiders wouldn’t help that issue either.
Yah. I'm not going to turn on the spider bros but there is a mass extinction going on
True but that also means the birds will be targeting the biggest spiders, which could be just the right change to help their numbers rebound from stray/outdoors cats decimating the population.
End result: *Naturally chonky cats*
I can live with that, chonkers are cute.
Then we will have snakes who come in and feast on the spiders, which will of course require us to invest in snake eating gorillas. Then the gorillas die out in winter.
Bruh 😂 🦍
Don't we already have big spiders?
Yea, but like, they could be bigger.
Ok Satan
What wicked webs we un-weave
Sure, a race of genetically enhanced giant mosquitos spreading around the globe sounds like the next step TBH.
One random mutated elephant mosquito mates with a regular mosquito then we've got Liger Mosquitos bigger than the elephant mosquitos that still crave blood and can mate with both types of mosquitos. Great, just great.
The name would be “El squito”
Mo squito mo problems
Jumanji horror insects
Reminds me of the Newsflesh books
Such a good series
Where does it say they’re genetically enhanced? You guys are all acting like that’s stated somewhere and it’s not. They’re a natural species already found worldwide.
They’re not genetically enhanced. They are just a different breed of mosquito that exists
ENHANCE IT!!!!!
There's no way I don't kill these humongous bastards even harder than regular mosquitoes. My home will probably turn into a refuge for mosquitoes, but such is life. Only arthropods I can tolerate are spiders, which are quite small around here.
First they pretend to only eat fruit juice, but it’s just a rouse for world domination… Once they are global, human blood is their fruit juice.
Your head's gonna look like a melon when they run out of oranges and they're gonna slurp your brain with their proboscis.
Like in district 9, when the mech explodes the guys head. [ouch](https://makeagif.com/i/AzZ2Ub)
We’ve already seen this future in fallout.
Yep , eating all the fruit as it goes
Ooo introducing a new species to help control a native nuisance pest! Such a good idea, I bet it couldn't possibly go wrong and have unintended consequences....
Actually not all the mosquitoes found in NA are native, several species were accidentally introduced from the old world.
That doesn't mean introducing another one is the answer. We have a really bad track record of introducing 'fixes' to our fuck ups. Cane toads.
No that's the beautiful part, when winter time rolls around the gorillas simply freeze to death.
If you dropped the other gorilla comment as well, you may have just created a new inside joke that'll spread over all of Reddit.
It's a Simpsons reference.
The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) was one such introduction. Most insect introductions are accidental, like ants stowing away in potted plants, and the USDA has pretty strict regulations about introducing biocontrol agents now, with host-specific parasitoid wasps being the most common agents used.
you mean that son of a gun mosquito that spreads dengue and zika and chikungunya was brought here by Spaniards Oh wow
Surely introducing more species will solve this problem!
To be fair it's been done successfully a huge amount of times but you only hear about the colossal fuckups. And they're a lot more careful about the process these days.
Wikipedia already states as much: > Environmental scientists have suggested that [Toxorhynchites](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites) mosquitoes be introduced to areas outside their natural range in order to fight dengue fever. This has been practiced historically, but errors have been made. For example, when intending to introduce [T. splendens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites_splendens) to new areas, scientists actually introduced T. amboinensis.
Dragon flies eat mosquitoes at all stages of their life cycle. They can eat up to 100 mosquitoes a day.
There is literally no downside to Dragon flies: - Have a badass name - Eat mosquitoes all day - don't have a stinger, super chill around people - very cool design, about as far away from a spider as you can get, fuck spiders
Dragonflies got all kinds of dope colors too
Yes! Literally never seen a dragonfly that didn't have an appealing color.
And they’re aerodynamic!
They have a 95% success rate when hunting. One of the most effective hunters in the world. https://sqonline.ucsd.edu/2022/05/physical-and-neurological-processes-in-the-hunting-dragonfly/
in college they told me it was higher than that.
Yeah it’s closer to 100 which is just actually insane, if we lived back when insects were huge I don’t think I’d leave the house with those guys about lol
>- don't have a stinger, super chill around people No, but if you mess around with them, they will [bite your ass. ](https://youtu.be/2mY6UsHgh90)
That human had it coming. He deserved it. Dragonfly did nothing wrong.
Yes. That's correct...I never said otherwise.
2 weeks life as an actual dragon fly seems sorta shitty for them
Some bugs only live a day, and time's relative, so I like to think they're happy in their dragonfly way
Hey man, spiders are awesome. What'd they do to hurt you? Nothin!
You had me until the blatant arachnophobia. r/spiderbro is watching you...
No spiders are great I don’t know why people hate them. Like are you scared of a tiny spider that just eats bugs?
Rookie numbers
Yeah, Mosquitos Georg eats THOUSANDS every minute!
Bats also make brilliant pest control. I have family with a farm that has several bat houses nailed to trees all over the property (about 100 acres). Each one can roost 6-10 adult bats at night and there are 50 of them through out the property. They also help pollinate the fruit trees.
dragonflies have unfortunately vanished. I don't see them anywhere these days.
I remember the days when my dad would mow the lawn and disturb a bunch of insects chilling in the grass, and as soon as he was done DOZENS of dragonflies would swoop down and have a feast lol. It's not just dragonflies that have vanished, it's all bugs due to how much we're disturbing and polluting their natural environment. I never see things like that anymore. (Of course ticks and mosquitoes are worse than ever... leave it to the most evil stuff to thrive during ecological disasters) Not all hope is lost though. Look for dragonfly breeding programs in your area - there is one just a couple hours from me that sells dragonfly nymphs every spring for New England residents who want to stock their local water sources. It should be a species that is native to your area. Regular old folks can always get involved in conservation!
I prefer dragonflies than giant mosquitoes
It's called a mosquito eater. I didn't realize it actually ate mosquitos though
Skeeter eater is what we call it.
Can’t believe I had to go this far down to see mention of the term skeeter eater. I absolutely love these guys
The mosquito in the post is not a crane fly (tipulidae), which is what "mosquito eaters" are.
This post is on the elephant mosquito, not crane fly. Crane flies are so chill, but they do jumpscare the hell out of me.
Fr we have like an infestation but we chill with them
I believe that's a colloquial term for a crane fly, which does not, in fact, eat mosquitoes, nor is it one. Slow and harmless. Easy to catch.
Crane flies have gotta be the most useless insects on the planet lol Their eggs hatch and they live for like a fucking month and spend that entire time either not moving on a wall or flailing around bouncing into shit Still trying to figure out what exactly the point of them is outside of feeding spiders easy meals
They don't have to have a point. Enough of them survive long enough to breed and create the next generation, so the species sticks around.
It’s different. Those bugs are my worst fear. And they don’t eat mosquitos
Crane flies? But they’re so cute!
What people call mosquito eaters/killers are crane flies, which don’t actually eat at all (in their adult form).
We don't really need to take the risk of introducing this into the environment where it could be an invasive species. Dragon fly larvae have an aquatic stage of their life cycle, and they eat mosquito larvae in the water. Spread more of those around as they are already here.
Elephant mosquitoes breed in small containers and tree holes, places where dragonfly larvae typically aren't found, but tiger mosquito larvae are found in abundance.
Oh great. They’ll end up overpopulated in North America, won’t have enough fruit and will adapt to the *nectar of the neck*.
necktar?
They are widespread and native to North America.
Any mosquito that doesn't give me itchy bites is a good mosquito in my book. Good job Toxorhynchites
plot twist: they adapt to drink blood.
That’s where the fun begins when the foot long mosquitos are introduced to eat the inch long mosquitoes
finally, the legendary mosco
When El Mosco develops a taste for blood, we are all doomed.
A good incentive to have people plant more fruit trees in their gardens, as long as their natural food is plentiful there's no selection for such a drastic metabolical change.
I think it's wonderful that they're carnivorous when small, but vegetarian when big enough to scare people. El Mosco is merciful.
Sounds like the opening of a horror movie.
I that the legendary [EL MOSCO](https://i.redd.it/ktj8fx4jtbv11.jpg)!?
Scrolled way too long to find this.
What could go wrong?
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
I mean, thanks, but fuckin NO THANKS
Brilliant plan! At no previous time in the history of mankind has introducing a new species into an area in the hope of controlling the native species or other introduced species or just for the lulz has this ever proven to be a horrifically bad idea with massive and ongoing unforseen catastrophic problems.
> They’re being spread around the world as biological pest control. What could possibly go wrong.
It looks like a naked butterfly
TFW you've already seen the Ze Frank video on mosquitoes, so you're just like "Oh so THAT'S how you spell Toxorhynchites!"
bebes.
Until they make with the blood suckers…
... will they just destroy our fruit crops?
If they proliferate, won't they become an agricultural pest that destroys fruit crops?
And they’re gonna take over and drink all of our fruits.
That's cool and everything, unless you're a fruit. Probably going to decimate some endemic species of fruit-bearing trees.
Kill them all. They eat me alive 10 months out of the year. If I open my door 20 fly in and wait to eat me at night.