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RE: The continuing evolution of mosquito nets may spell the end of suffering from mosquito-borne diseases
Having 54% of affected households using a pesticide coated net is actually quite impressive considering the problems we still have with anti-vaxers in well educated populations.
I was wondering, do mosquitoes play a very useful ecological role? Would there be any major downsides if we did succeed in cutting their populations to a fraction of what they are now?
This is a great point. It's hard to know what the effects on the environment would be. That is why many people are calling for introduction of wolbachia infected mosquitoes instead. You can learn more about that here
Yeah, I doubt there’s much rejection based on wanting all-natural organic net instead. If you’re in an area where a mosquito net is recommended then you’ve likely seen what nature can do and will take anything to protect you from it.
There’s a lot of debate along those lines when it comes to the genetic engineering approaches. The disease carrying mosquitos are only a few species out of many so there is a likelihood another will fill their niche in the eco system if we get a little genocidey at some point in the future. I’m also somewhat in the camp of: why not wipe them all out? we’ve accidently done it to so many other species we might as well add one that causes an outsized proportion of our suffering to the list.
Some mosquitoes are obligate members of some pitcher plant communities and are non-sanguinous.