5 years ago
5
Should we wipe mosquitoes off the face of the Earth?
When an Aedes aegypti mosquito bites you, she – because only the females, which need blood as nutrients for their offspring, bite – will probe your skin with her proboscis as many as 20 times. Two pairs of sharp cutting edges, the fascicle, break the skin and then search for a blood vessel, withdrawing and re-entering until a suitable target is found. When the blood starts to flow, a salivary tube delivers a protein that stops it clotting. The mosquito holds still and then begins to suck; in 90 seconds’ time, she feels full, and stops. And then, if you are in parts of South and Central America and bang out of luck, you will have Zika.
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https://www.theguardian.com
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As someone who grew up in a tropical country, had dengue fever, and has seen friends die of hemorrhagic dengue fever, FUCK YES.
Surprisingly, this article looked solely at it from (both sides of) the ethical standpoint. The ecological impact didn't even rate a mention! Usually, getting rid of a species can have unintended ramifications on other organisms (those who use it as a food source, etc etc). I'm not saying I don't want mosquitos gone, I'm saying that I was slightly shocked at the journalism here, that it didn't even consider the ecological viewpoint about the effect on other organisms. Even if it was thought that there would be NO issues, it would be helpful if they'd stated that, and the reason why.
No.
Sorry, buddy, but I beg to differ on this one, mosquitos kill and cripple more people than all other animals combined, and eliminating them, as far as anyone knows, would have nearly zero ecological impact.
If you hate humans and think they’re better extinct I’d advocate for nuclear war or some more efficient and less annoying way to exterminate humankind.
I'm one of these people. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature...s-bite-some-people-more-than-others-10255934/ A cousin and I spent a few minutes one evening trying to photograph white tail deer underneath a rising full moon. Eventually, my slapping spooked the deer. My cousin's legs were fine. You could have played connect-the-dots on mine.