I read once that ironically one of the most important ecological niches for mosquitos is that they keep humans out of a bunch of places that allow those habitats to be preserved. It’s their annoyance and medical danger to people that makes them so valuable to the ecosystem.
Cool well we can put up some do not trespass signs
KILL ALL MOSQUITOS
This is one gamble I am willing to make.
As much as I hate mosquitoes, I must admit that without them, entire ecological systems would collapse…
I think its unethical to cause an animal to go extinct on purpose. Like it seems a very nuclear option to me.
On the other hand I hate these mosquitoes tho… And they are a medical threat to humans
Is it unethical to make smallpox go extinct?
I guess we humans have a different code of ethics for diseases and bacteria… Team DNA mixing vs team DNA cloning… A fight as old as life itself
I wonder what face would ticks pull in this case where we already know there is no drawback for 100% annihilating them.
Its sort of ironic how mosquitoes are at the very bottom of the food chain for most of the ecologies they inhabit… But at the same time, is the biggest killer (through the transmission of malaria and other diseases) of humans, who see themselves at the top of the food chain.
In reality, the food chain is more like a food cycle.
…humans, who see themselves…
y-you mean ourselves, right?
Unfortunately, we probably can’t. A LOT of things eat mosquitos.
I’ll settle for a repellent that works or better yet something that makes me no longer react to bites.
There is some promising research with gene drives, which are essentially genes that when passed on to offspring, overwrite the other copy of the gene from the other parent.
It may be possible to introduce non disease spreading mosquitoes with gene drives into the wild and within an extremely short time all mosquitoes in the population would be non disease carrying.
Of course, this is something that you may not be able to reverse once done, so it’s a pretty drastic step to take after very intense scrutiny.
I’d be more than fine with this, I just don’t want us to hate mosquitoes into a four pests scenario.
True, the issue of being bitten would not go away. Perhaps a gene that makes them not attracted to biting humans somehow, but that would be a lot harder to implement
OP, take your nail, the sharpest you have.
Now press it firmly into the sting, then rotate by 90° and repeat.
Dunno if it’s placebo but makes some itching go away for me.
We have a suction tool, I think it’s literally called the bug bite thing or something. Basically it suctions on to your arm where the bite was and you pull your skin up into this tube and it sucks out the venom that causes the itching as well as the stinger if one was left behind.
My wife and I haven’t had a bug bite any time we’ve had that thing handy, so mainly we just put it on each other’s nipples for shits & gigs. I can’t really say that it’s effective, but it is fun.
This is why I love the Internet
Your comment made my day 😂
To be clear - @happyhippo@feddit.it means your FINGERnail. Don’t stab yourself.
Lol indeed. Thanks for making it clear.
You’re still among us, OP, are you?
Wait… I’m not the only person that does that?
Lol!
I usually heat a spoon with a lighter and then burn the itch away.
This, but I use the hottest water I can stand under the tap and go a few times.
The way this works is because the reason a mosquito bite is itchy is due to an enzyme in mosquito saliva which locally numbs an area when a mosquito bites you. Once the mosquito saliva enzyme starts wearing off, it registers as itchiness until the enzyme is completely gone. So, using heat to denature the enzyme, making it impossible to do it’s job, makes the itching go away.
I thought the itchiness was due to your immune system reacting to the saliva. And as you scratch it, you cause additional inflammation which causes a bigger response and thus more itchiness.
Whatever it is, killing it with fire works. Though I got a bit carried away a few nights ago and I have a burn mark on my leg now. Be careful kids!
Wait so the if you scratch it, it itches more that my parents used to tell me was a real thing?
