this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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What's the mosquito question?
Q: How do we destroy the ecosystem?
A: by standing idly while the deadliest creature on Earth continues to kill the innocent
Humans?
humans have a propensity to believe they're the main character
Mosquitoes are actually the main character
Malaria and dengue? So does that mean we eliminate all bird because of bird flu yes?
For what it's worth, DARPA has been working on eliminating malaria carrying mosquitos specifically this in mind. Mosquitos make up a large percentage of the diet of bats, it's true, but malaria carrying mosquitos only make up a small portion of that, primarily in areas where the disease is most prevalent.
It shouldn't have any effect other than the genetic elimination of a disease carrying pest. It won't affect mosquitoes getting you in the summertime because our mosquitoes aren't the focus of this project.
Mosquitos don't really make up a large portion of bat diets. That myth came from a study years back when scientists were trying to figure out how bats located prey not what prey did bats target
They study involved releasing a bat into a room filled solely with mosquitos, and it ate a lot of them, but that's because it was easy to do since it was a room loaded with mosquitos, and it was the only option for food that the bat had.
The media ran with it screaming "bats can eat a hundred mosquitos an hour!" Because it made a catchy headline moreso than the actual study results.
Bats make up less than 3% of a bats diet, depending on the species it can be higher though.
Bats typically prefer to eat larger insects such as moths, since it's more calories for the effort and they are slower and easier to find than mosquitos.
They’re spreading malaria and encephalitis again.