Hacker News Reader

Comment by beauzero | Hacker News Reader

I have one question...can we do this with fire ants?

As annoying as fire ants are, invasive aquatic species like Zebra Mussels are having a frightening impact in the United States. If we can remove them using a similar technique, that would be amazing.

...and ticks

Don't forget about bed bugs.

and fleas

And fucking cane toads.

Edit: as in the Australian, introduced pest.

Poison oak please.

Ants actually serve a purpose in the ecosystem. Mosquitoes are unique in that many ecologists believe mosquito eradication would not adversely affect other species.

Dragon flies love to eat them.

Humans love to eat wheat, but we wouldn't starve if all the wheat was gone.

Awe :( no more good bread

someone would no doubt start a company called Beyond Bread to make artificial bread from beef

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye_bread

Most rye bread you get would be a mix of rye flour with wheat flour, and it's mostly wheat flour.

The rye breads I make regularly contain 2/3 rye flour and 1/3 wheat flour. This is a "mixed" bread, a real rye bread would contain even less wheat flour.

A pure rye bread would be more difficult to bake as it binds water differently but I think its doable. It might not be as tasty but you wouldn't starve in front of it.

Which is why I said "good bread" Sure you can make lots of other ones but without wheat it isn't as tasty.

Fire ants in the US are an invasive species, like aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

The comment referred to fire ants specifically. These have become introduced to countries outside their homeland. For these regions While fire ants offer no purpose, create large economic costs and other issues including killing people.

Strong suspicion every member of the ecosystem plays a role in sustaining the ecosystem.

Mosquitos are still the deadliest animal as far as humans are concerned, makes me wonder what other populations they are keeping under control....

Ecologist hubris and ignorance of 2nd and 3rd order effects is marching with misplaced confidence towards the death spiral.

*Buys more SpaceX bonds....

> Buys more SpaceX bonds.

Write me when the Martian ecosystem will have reached equilibrium between mega-worms and killer super-bacteria imported from Earth :)

Places with endemic disease tend to have higher fertility rates. Mosquitoes aren't keeping the human population under control.

The ones most harmful to humans are also fairly specific about what species they bite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anopheles#Preferred_sources_fo...

"every member of the ecosystem plays a role in sustaining the ecosystem" is not entirely true - there are many members of the ecosystem (including this particular species of mosquitoes) that provably are not required to sustain the ecosystem, because they're invasive species who clearly weren't needed to sustain that ecosystem which was just fine before they arrived. In many cases (though not this one) the invasive species actively contributes to destruction of the ecosystem, so preserving the ecosystem may require to fully eliminate a particular species from it.

Most members of an ecosystem play a role in sustaining it, but certainly not all.

According to whom? That now-famous intern from 8 years ago?

> Mosquitoes are unique in that many ecologists believe mosquito eradication would not adversely affect other species.

With all due respect, I read that as “many ecologists can’t imagine how mosquito erradication...” seems like naive interventionism where benefits are known and hence measured but risks are unknown and hence ignored.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com