Mosquito Eradication Debate

No one is talking about wiping out all mosquitos.

it's being done with mosquitos, why not w ticks?

Yes, attack the mosquitos, not the people.

Disappointing that this might halt approaches that involve KILLING ALL THE MOSQUITOS

any bug other than mosquitoes. for mosquitoes, we're one step away from take off and nuke it from orbit. it's the only way to be sure

There are over 800 species of Mosquitos and only a couple of species can transmit diseases to humans. The Aegyptes species targeted in this test is invasive in the Americas and not a native mosquito. If we could eliminate this species it would prevent most cases of a deadly disease and would have little to no environmental effect. Other creatures that depend on mosquitos would continue to consume the other 799 species.

You don't get fewer mosquitoes unfortunately. You just get fewer Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, and the diseases they carry. Other species that want to prey on you will increase in number.

I'm all for reducing the EEE in the Greater Boston Area, too.There are only four species of mosquito that bite humans. They are a tiny part of the food chain, and would be completely replaced by other food sources.It's also not the first time humans have successfully made this kind of intervention.Here's an article from 2016 about the same thing (it even mentions Oxitec): <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2016/01/zika-carrying-mosquitoes-

The mosquito issue mentioned in the parent is valid in many areas. After all, they kill more humans than any other animal. The good news is that there are biological controls like BTI that are effective.

The problem is "we don't like mosquitoes" so we have eliminated their breeding areas, consequentally we have eliminated the breeding area of a host of other insects. So, now we have no insects, so either we put up with mosquitoes or we put up with environmental catastrophy, or we come up with $newidea that solves the problem. Do you have an instance of $newidea to avoid mosquitoes?