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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

I seem to recall reading that mosquitos are a staple food source for birds or bats or something, what could possibly go wrong with killing them all off?

I am guilty of not reading the entire discussion here, so I apologize if this is a derail, but historically they outright eradicated the mosquitoes on some island... Which led to other things dying that ate the mosquitoes... Which led to yet more things dying.

I am failing to find a source, but maybe this blog post references it:

During WWII the Navy (which had a large base on the island) sprayed the village heavily with DDT to cut down the mosquito population. As you might imagine, DDT killed the mosquitoes...and most of the frogs, and is suspected of contributing to a number of cancer deaths on Ocracoke.

https://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/2011/09/mosquito-contr...

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From the article:

"That might sound disturbing from an ecological perspective, but mosquitoes don’t make up a significant portion of any known predator’s diet; there’s just not a lot of meat there. “So far there’s no evidence really that seems to show that Anopheles gambiae is a key species in the ecosystem,” Jonathan Kayondo, a senior research officer at the Uganda Virus Research Institute and a member of Target Malaria’s scientific team, told Fong. “There’s nothing that exclusively feeds on it. So I’m finding it hard to see how that would collapse the ecosystem, because that’s the fear most people have.”

Took like 10 seconds to find a species that likes to munch on the mosquitos --> http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

You do realise that there is more than one species of mosquito? The human pathogen spreading species (less than 1% of all mosquito species) play no important role in any natural ecosystem.

Well, you see, what I did is search for the specific mosquito from the quoted text and found a link to a species of spider who's primary food source is the very same mosquito being discussed.

So either the scientist isn't very good at the google or just doesn't like "vampire spiders" and is lying about there being no predators for this mosquito. Whichever way you look at it this is the person you're trusting to release genetically modified organisms into the wild.

Without looking it up, I don't think I'd like vampire spiders very much either.

I was able to find one reference to this spider in the context of mosquito elimination:

Regarding ecological issues surrounding the release of sterile TMs, of particular importance is that a reduction in the number of Anopheles is unlikely to have a negative impact on local food chains. According to (Pennetier et al. 2010) there are no birds, fish or other insects that feed exclusively on Anopheles mosquitoes, the only known exception being Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by selecting blood-carrying female mosquitoes as preferred prey.

from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alicia_Coupe/publicatio...

Even Evarcha culicivora will be fine as it is not just living off human disease carrying Anopheles species. Even if it was going to be wiped out I think that it is a minor price to pay to rid the world of Malaria.

Yet another reason to exterminate mosquitoes ASAP. People would continue to use every weapon available to kill them even just because they are annoying. However most chemicals we use today affect basically all insects. So we either eradicate mosquitoes now or continue to watch decline of bee population. I personally would chose bees over mosquitoes any day of the year.

I personally would chose bees over mosquitoes any day of the year.

That sounds like a wise preference.

DDT affects a lot more than just mosquitos. A gene drive wouldn't even kill all mosquitos, just the specific ones that spread human diseases. You can't compare the effects.

I wasn't comparing the effects, just supporting the idea that unintended consequences are a thing and suggesting we even have a historical precedent involving mosquitoes per se should anyone be interested in trying to find a better source for the incident.

DDT was labeled as safe. It was sprayed on kids at swimming pools. Now we know it weakens birds eggs, and causes birth defects.

It's not a matter of it this genetic modification would have consequences, but what will those consequences and side effects be?

Our ecosystem is insanely complex, as show by the Biosphere II project. You can't just try to surgically alter one part without lots of unintended effects down the line.

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