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They have actually exhaustively studied this, and they offer zero benefit, they aren’t even a good food source for any known animal.
The risks associated with mosquito eradication are extremely low.
That’s like the only bug that’s like that. The rest are crazy important to their ecosystems.
This is just plain false. Them and their eggs are an important food source for all kinds of aquatic animals and birds. Also, their larva remove contamins for water.
Even logically this doesn’t make sense. What’s more likely: every insect is extremely important except one, or humans are wrong (as we so often are) about one species of insect?
The specific mosquito species that carries malaria isn’t all that important. Other mosquitos will occupy it’s niches. That’s the mosquito people want to eradicate
Sounds like massive human bias at play. Any source?
sources?
Ticks can eat shit and die too
Bed bugs?
Huge food source for cockroaches, which are in turn a huge food source for birds and small mammals.
They live fucking everywhere too, including in caves and drainage systems.
So what you’re saying is they should stay far away from civilization…
who is putting their bed in a cave
Multiple people in opal mining areas of Australia and at least one dude in a ghost town near death valley and at least one hotel off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more
Don’t bats eat mosquitos?
There are fish which are eating the larvae and also adult mosquitos.
They don’t feed exclusively on mosquito larvae/eggs. They can easily switch to another source.
I wonder how much has been studied about the ability of the other species to proliferate enough to make up and not be eaten out of existence. The mosquitos existing may not be the limiting factor on the population size of other species.
I feel like humans are the only species whose extinction would not have a negative effect on Earth’s ecosystem (quite possibly a positive one)
Fun fact: I’ve been doing a lot of reading about indigenous peoples, and one of the constant themes is how those peoples’ traditional life ways were net positives for the environment. In California, for instance, Native American agriculture involved controlled burns every twenty years or so - keeping the soil fertile and encouraging a healthy mix of the “wild” species they cared for. They had been doing that for maybe 20,000 years. So when “environmentalists” in the early 20th century decided native lifeways were primitive and bad for the environment, and established enormous national parks where natives were no longer permitted to hunt or gather and fires were stamped out immediately, those national parks turned into tinder boxes - instead of the controlled burns the plants had evolved to take advantage of, we ended up with decades of fuel building up in the undergrowth, turning into massive uncontrolled burns that killed everything, and then invasive species rolled up and finished off the native plants.
“But untouched pristine wilderness”… No. That never existed. That’s a racist trope spread by white colonists who wanted to think of Native Americans as enemies of nature in order to justify genocide. It’s the opposite of the noble savage myth and equally racist. Fuck John Muir.
Over and over again, when you compare areas where indigenous people had lived in their traditional lifeways to areas where the people were killed or exiled but the environment was left untouched, the areas where humans were genocided have less species diversity, less fertility, and less healthy environments overall.
And if we, 21st century humanity, can use our science and technology to rediscover the old knowledge, we can take up our previous role and manage the environment around us for the benefit of all. Hell, in a lot of environments we have a duty to do so - we brought the rabbits to Australia, who’s going to get rid of them if not for us?
And all that rant is to say, humans aren’t the problem. Capitalism is the problem. Greed is the problem. Humans have lived as beneficial parts of the environment for approximately 150,000 years and we can do so again.
About the national park undergrowth…how about the option to release herds of goats to eat all that extra stuff on the ground to avoid having it burn eventually?
I’m not an expert, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. If goats aren’t native to the area, we’d want to be careful not to do more harm than good (like, what if the goats like the native plants but don’t eat the invasive species), ofc.
It’s certainly better than the logging industry’s argument that they can replicate the effects of forest fires by clear cutting old growth forests.
humans have invented capitalism therefore humans are bad for the ecosystem. In just a century, it surpassed whatever good we did in the past.
Adding to that, indigenous Brazilians in the Amazon Basin area effectively created and spread terra preta (dark earth), which is extremely fertile and have been doing that for several centuries, that’s also a net positive for the environment
Adam Smith stands to speak as the ship rocks with the waves.
“The creation of wealth is what matters. If an industrious businessman wants to use available resources to create goods which he can then sell in the market he should be applauded for producing something of value. No one should be allowed to stifle industry.”
“But how can you not see what harm you are causing? By promoting this naked greed you endanger us all. Every day the planks of our ship grow thinner. And for what? So that some baron can collect more of our coin?”
“Tecumseh, you are a simple minded savage. The items for sale in the market today: toothpicks, wooden spoons, hair combs, if they didn’t have more value in that form then nobody would pay for them. The planks, the mast, and the deck boards of the ship must all have less value than the products made from them. The market has decided it is so.”
“This market is destroying the very foundation of our life. Even now the water is knee high in the bilge and rising faster than we can bail it out. We lived in harmony with the ship for years. But ever since you established the market your ‘businessmen’ have been tearing the ship apart. How can we continue to live if the ship is sinking?”
A loud crack as one of the spars snaps sending splinters raining down on the deck. Several well dressed passengers scramble to collect the pieces.
“You see, Tecumseh, even on a collapsing ship there is opportunity for profit. You can’t deny the genius of the market. And if the ship starts to sink the market will substitute another, better ship, as soon as it is profitable.”
“Sigh. Only when the last mast has snapped, the last plank has broken, and our ship is underwater will you realize that coin will not keep you afloat.”
Aedes mosquitos serve no known ecological purpose. They are purely parasitic, are not unique pollinators (as in, any plant they do pollinate is also pollinated by other species), and do not make up a substantial portion of the diet of any species.
I would venture to say their extinction would have a positive effect on the Ecosystem by closing that transmission vector for the diseases they carry.
Good to know we are not alone!
So basically disease wifi, then :)
Could it possibly act as a form of reservoir for diseases that control the size of certain fauna, like…apes?
All I could find as a positive for their existence is that in the past they have kept humans from inhabiting rainforests and marshlands, and more generally control where grazing animals can feed.
I don’t advocate human death obviously but with the specific comment you’re replying to:
humans = bad for the environment
mosquitos = less humans overall
so mosquitos may be good for the environment in the most assholish of ways.
how many billionaires have mosquitoes killed so far? that is the correct question
Humans are not bad for the environment. Capitalism is bad for the environment. Before imperialism and capitalism, most places on earth were populated by indigenous humans who actually protected the land they relied on to survive. There was no drive to exploit the land for all its resources, and there was an existential motivator for preserving nature as best as possible.
See OP’s comment in a different thread: https://lemmy.world/comment/11768484
arguably, if we’re talking about what’s bad for the planet, you could easily just make the argument that humans are over populated due to our advances in science and engineering allowing us to both live longer, and protect ourselves from the various threats in the environment meant to keep is at a reasonable level of population.
Presumably, mother nature never intended for species to be consciously countering her very own playbook at every fucking turn possible.
Mother nature never intended anything because mother nature is just random chance and multiplication of the best fit
overpopulation is a fascist dogwhistle, just so you’re aware
Yeah sure, humans outside of current realities don’t have to be bad for the environment…but we do live in that reality where most humans are really bad for the environment and mosquitos are killing tons of us.
Again I’m firmly on team human, fuck mosquitos. Hopefully some day we can get to a point where less humans isn’t good for the environment.
I will not stand for this Pro wasp propaganda!
I imagine a world without bees and wasps to look more like those in my dinosaur books.
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I haven’t killed a wasp in years. And that was only because it was building a nest inside my storm door just above eye level. Surprised the shit out of me because I barely saw the nest in the dark, struggled to change focus, and jumped back once I realized what I was seeing. Was not a fun encounter. It’s like, buddy, nobody was gonna be happy with that arrangement.
I gotta kill a wasp nest soon (my bros, paper wasps) because they’re on the balcony and I’m trying to sell my house. Anyone know of a way to relocate them instead? No, I don’t have a bee suit. I feel bad too because I’ve seen a bunch of abandoned nests around the outside while cleaning my house, in perfectly acceptable places, but out in the open so they probably got prayed on and now they’re safe behind the fake shutters. 😭
Blue-eyed ensign wasps are cute :3
Had one indoors the other day at work and someone noticed it and was bothered by its existence. I took a picture of it and the grabbed it to take it outside. Would have preferred to let it be, but worried others might hurt it :\
What about ticks?
Yeah, fuck ticks and wasps
No, wasps are fine and help deal with invasive species, you just have to not bother them. Ticks on the other hand are bad for everyone involved and deserve to be dropped into a tornado of bleach. If that seems weirdly specific, it’s because some scientists did that, then wrote a paper encouraging others to drop ticks into bleach tornadoes.
That was just so they could study the microbiome in the tick’s gut without the bacteria on it’s surface contaminating the sample.
get revenge by eating figs
I stopped being scared of wasps after learning how to read their body language. Quiet buzzing and relaxed wings = calm, whereas loud buzzing and raised wings = mad. Plus, as long as you’re not allergic, a sting is just temporary pain, which definitely isn’t worth taking their life. Wasps are literally just animals, and we should be kind to them.
Bugs are cool as long as they are spiders who exclusively eat other bugs. And pill bugs.
Paper wasps usually are fine unless you get too close. I opened up the old toolbox on my grandad’s tractor (parked outside, lid slightly ajar) as a curious kid. I was greeted by angry buzzing followed swiftly by stinging.
I also have some on the outside of my carport where the roof overhangs a bit. I could harvest my peppers a couple meters below them without issue. Once I got a little close and one did the diving/swooping “sod off” manoeuvre, but otherwise never bothered me. Their nest got taken out by a typhoon a few days ago, however
Cordylobia anthropophaga can go die in a fire.
I know they’re important. I’m also afraid of them because some members of my family have had adverse reactions to stings from wasps. I would like wasps to live happy, happy lives far, far away from me.
Ok, fine, educate me, what do wasps contribute to the environment?
They’re pollinators. A popular example is figs but you’ll see them in flowers just like bees.
Figs.
That’s only some types of figs and one type of tiny wasp. Most figs we eat are virgin fruit.
They eat the things that eat the things you eat.
… they eat me?
Yeah… well the also eat my peaches and plums. So they eat my food, and that just ain’t cool. On top of that they set up shop by my front door and then sting me for just walking into MY house where I was letting them make a little room of their own. Not no more. Them bitchass mfers are back in hell where they belong, and my world is much better since I opened that portal for them.
yea, ok, we got rid of our peaches anyway, it wasn’t that bad :D but yea, keep boundaries, ok.
Many wasp species, while not considered pollinators, still transport pollen and pollinate plants. Others hunt pest insects. There are also many species that are vital as prey for birds
People who post shit like this are being intentionally obtuse and provocative. “Wasp” is a big tent classification, and what everyone else thinks of are a few specific creatures.
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant;
Vast majority of things that are “wasps” don’t bite/sting and many are important pollinators.
The bitey stingy ones? Fuck em.
As someone who has a live and let live attitude towards most insects…when I got swarmed by ground wasps while weeding out my garden I had no mercy for them after. Aggressive doesn’t even describe how pissed they get.
It was the first time I didn’t feel bad about using insecticide. So yeah, the hyper aggressive, stinging ones can fuck right off.
I’ve found the best thing to use against wasps is diatomaceous earth. It’s non-toxic, and just very tiny silicate animals that get into their joints. It kills the entire nest and not much else around it.
That’s what they used when the wasps were in my siding and stinging me in my bed at night.
Oh that’s a great idea! I didn’t know diatomaceous earth worked on wasps.
I’ve used it to keep ticks and fleas out of the lawn area my dogs play in, and to get rid of ants.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to dump it on the wasps, I guess I just thought they were too big? Doesn’t it work by puncturing their exoskeleton and basically sucking all their fluids out?(I could be misinformed on that)
Either way I’ll go that route if I run into that issue again! Then I don’t have to worry about contaminated areas of my lawn.
Thank you for the tip!!!
You lost me at the end. Now you’re the one being obtuse and provocative. Just because something stings or bites doesn’t mean it isn’t good for the environment.
Fuck you too, then
Just because something is good for the environment doesn’t mean the environment can’t live without it
The world would survive an extinction event given enough time, that doesn’t mean the loss of biodiversity is acceptable.
