Comment on We're coming for you
GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
There are only a few species of mosquitoes that pose a threat to humans (and several thousand that don’t). If we had a way to effectively eradicate those few species, then it probably wouldn’t have major consequences. They don’t fill an important, unique niche in their ecosystems like, say, bees.
But we don’t have a way to do that. Not without huge collateral damage from poisons and the like. There’s been some promising work with genetic engineering, releasing mosquitoes that will mate and produce non-viable offspring. This can greatly reduce a local population in the short-term, but they bounce back.
The US entirely eliminated screwworms within its border in a very similar fashion 60 years ago and then wiped them off the whole continent just for good measure: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj8arvfYj4
If we actually directed effort at exterminating harmful mosquitos, they would be gone in a couple years.
cm0002@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not necessarily, all attempts/experiments done so far have been intentionally limited. If we simply throw the dial to 11 and just absolutely flooded the areas it might have a much more long term impact and possibly eradication