this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (17 children)

If those creatures that also eat mosquitoes cannot eat them anymore, that means they would have to eat other bugs more frequently, and possibly fucking up all the ecosystem.

That said, fuck mosquitoes, they can take blood from other places.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 61 points 1 month ago (8 children)

All of our best data on the impact says that it really wouldn't matter. Sometimes a species is a linchpin for the ecosystem, and sometimes it isn't.

Sucks for mosquitoes, but there's a very real chance that we'll smallpox them, and the biggest concern will be our confidence that the virus we use doesn't impact other species unintentionally.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Haven't read closely on it, but I've seen plenty of articles about the lack of effect we'd see over killing off mosquitoes. I have a feeling that, along with what you said, it's because they're tiny.

Consider the dragonfly. They hunt mosquitoes efficiently. But relative to their size, a mosquito is like us eating a candy bar, or even less. Meanwhile, they could snatch about anything else and it would be like a 3-pound steak.

[–] Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Now that you say that, average us candy bar contains 200..250 kcal a piece. That's about 1/7th of BMR of an average healthy male.

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