this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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[โ€“] Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I hate to say it, but getting rid of mosquitos would probably have bigger consequences than that. The females are the only ones sucking blood, the males on the other hand help pollinate plants, exterminating them could potentially affect our food production lines...

... But not gonna lie I'd still genocide the fuckers, ecological damage be damned.

[โ€“] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't need to eliminate all mosquitos, just the ones that bite people.

There are dozens of different species of mosquitos, and not all of them bite people. If you get rid of the ones that bite people the others will likely still fill in as pollinators for those that are no longer competing with them.

[โ€“] Auzy@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes.. But then more humans will survive by avoiding certain diseases, which as a result, will produce a worse environmental outcome

[โ€“] JustinTheGM@ttrpg.network 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh, kill off 3 or 4 billionaires per year and you'll counteract whatever additional environmental damage comes from millions of people not dying from malaria.

[โ€“] Auzy@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Funny you mention that, but in a way that's also true via the same mechanism.

Isn't the Gates Foundation focusing on stopping diseases from mosquitos? https://www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/en/news-stories/stories/the-gates-foundation-and-the-world-mosquito-program-partners-in-change

[โ€“] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only the females of a tiny fraction of species, and only when they need to produce eggs, stuck blood.

[โ€“] GhostSpider@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago

Minimize their numbers as much as you want, but that won't stop me from having to deal with them in almost every single day of my life.