Humans wiped out mosquitoes (in one small lab test) If we could eliminate a species, should we? Science News. BY SUSAN MILIUS, 8:26AM, DECEMBER 17, 2018 "For the first time, humans have built a set of pushy, destructive genes that infiltrated small populations of mosquitoes and drove them to extinction. But before dancing sleeveless in the streets, let’s be clear. This extermination occurred in a lab in mosquito populations with less of the crazy genetic diversity that an extinction scheme would face in the wild. The new gene drive, constructed to speed the spread of a damaging genetic tweak to virtually all offspring, is a long way from practical use. Yet this test and other news from 2018 feed one of humankind’s most persistent dreams: wiping mosquitoes off the face of the Earth." My opinion is YES we certainly should eliminate the species which is the main malaria-spreading mosquito, Anopheles gambiae and we should extinct that species without delay. It will be disappointing if this new method can't extinct the species as we hope but no-one should dare to fault those who rush to find out if it will work. I trust that the World Health Organisation and national equivalents such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control will soon be planning to apply this supremely efficient pest control method against every blood-sucking parasite which is a disease vector with the intention to extinct them all! Genetic engineering and medical science has served humanity with as momentous a breakthrough as was as the discovery and use of vaccines and antibiotics. Congratulations and all the rewards on Earth and all the blessings in Heaven to those who have contributed. Let's roll.
many other species will also suffer... think food chain then what's next? simply eradicating anything annoying? venomous species? once they're all gone annoying/pestering humans will be next...
Rumour has it that Santa's reindeer have even volunteered to help with eradication effort when the scientists are ready. The reindeer and the caribou hate mosquitoes, apparently.
I see you've got a "cool cat" avatar there Blaster3. I'm pretty sure the cats will be on the side of eradicating mosquitoes ... and the ticks. Cats hate ticks. You do love cats, right? Time to show some love.
Indeed. Eradicating a disease-spreading pest species like mosquitoes would be a wonderful show of love for those all those people who are catching, suffering from and dying from those diseases, sure. The sad facts are - Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. They can transmit disease without being affected themselves. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over one million deaths. Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include: malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever. as well as newly detected Keystone virus. That's a lot of human suffering and of course it would be a show of love for people to eradicate the mosquito species which are causing all that suffering. It's the humane and caring thing to do, if science can now do that. There's no obligation for us to sacrifice our blood and our health (and the blood and health of other wild, pet and farm animals who also get bitten and catch diseases from mosquitoes) - sacrifice all that just to go on supporting the mosquito food chain. That's a food chain that civilisation and the animal world would be well rid of. Poorer parts of the world suffer a lot more from vector-born diseases. As you can see from this map, Africa is really getting hammered. So now there is something we can do that's really going to help. I know that there are a lot of people who do care, who can show that love when it is needed. There comes a time When we heed a certain call When the world must come together as one There are people dying Oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life The greatest gift of all We can't go on Pretending day-by-day That someone, somewhere soon make a change We're all a part of God's great big family And the truth, you know, love is all we need We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day, just you and me
The animals who survive by eating mosiquitos and their larvae might extinct too, and then the animals that eat those animals will suffer. We cannot predict the unintended consequences of extincting a species will have. But once we do it, there's no going back.
No worries because there are other insect prey species for insect predators to feed on. Mosquitoes also sip nectar so when they stop doing that it will leave more nectar to be sipped by species - like bees - which depend wholly on nectar and never suck blood. Mosquitoes being wiped out will lead to some other species flourishing as they move in to occupy the ecological niche left by the extinction of mosquitoes. So there are always going to be loads of larvae and flying insects for the higher animals to feed off of. Scientists know that extinctions happen in nature routinely. Extinction As long as species have been evolving, species have been going extinct. It is estimated that over 99.9% of all species that ever lived are extinct. The average lifespan of a species is 1–10 million years, although this varies widely between taxa. Almost all of those extinctions happened before the evolution of humans, before there were any civilisations or any scientists to make any predictions. Predicting things isn't required for nature to manage extinctions no problem. Nature has no problem with not "going back". What we can certainly predict is that this year and every year until we eradicate mosquitoes they will spread a lot of disease and a lot of people will die as a consequence.
by that very same reasoning, humans are their own 'invasive & harmful' species, sucking up resources and creating death, ergo we should eradicate ourselves...
Nonsense. If a mosquito invades a man's house, he can kill it without "by that very same reasoning" killing his own family and himself for allegedly "invading" his own house.
