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Horrors We've Unleashed (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 37 points 2 years ago* (17 children)

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.

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  • [–] 61 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Hopefully we can do the same for bedbugs. Fuck bedbugs. I can smell the little fuckers

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Hey, at least pubic lice are going extinct!

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years 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

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years 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.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years 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

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