Maybe there is some truth to the fact mosquitoes can only thrive with access to still water?
I once visited Indonesia and stayed at this place which was essentially jungle. I thought I was going to get destroyed by mosquitoes and yes we did have nets etc, but I was surprised at the lack of mosquitoes when outside.
I spoke with the owner who me that he doesn't worry much about mosquito born illness because he ensures there is no still water anywhere near his place. He said the most dangerous place for this type of thing was near small cities and towns because lots of dirty still water is present in gutters and pot holes etc. These places are breeding grounds for things like dengue fever according to the locals.
I can't really verify how true this but anecdotally I had a similar experience when I lived in a city, we started to get a LOT of mosquitoes hanging around our yard during rainy season. I went outside and noticed that many peoples bike tarps had sagged and formed ponds which had tons of mosquitoes hanging around them. I remembered what I learned on my trip and cleared all the water away. I do think it helped.
Definitely not trying to state this stuff as fact, just thought it would be interesting to share.
Evolutionary or not I don't know, but I can't stand that sound of mosquitos and want to kill them.
I'm someone who helps a bee/spider/any insect find its way instead of killing, but for some reason I literally want every mosquito on the planet to die.
Come to Australia! The mosquitoes are huge and pretty much silent. So they don't irritate with noise and are somewhat easy to spot. Definitely compared to the tiny hellspawn mosquitoes that roam in Europe. Those are impossible to find in a room and absolutely infuriating with their whiny noise when they buzz around the ears.
/edit
Someone mentioned flies. Don't come to Australia if you have a problem with flies. Those fuckers are scared of nothing and they respect nothing. They just sit in your face whilst you are walking and don't give a shit. Much worse than the European ones that are flying around but don't really land on skin.
I have this more with flies. Maybe because there aren’t many mosquitos here but very fat lazy flies are buzzing all around and landing on you too many months of the year.
One of the very few benefits of old age is that your ability to hear them slowly diminishes. Unfortunately my blood remains far too sweet for them to ignore.
"humans by the way are second behind the mosquito, causing 475,000 deaths every year..."
Depending on your background, you are either amazed that we are the second-biggest threat to ourselves because it's so self-destructive, or because you were convinced we had to be our own worst enemy.
Suicide accounts for just north of 800k human deaths each year. Definitely more than mosquitos.
The source is a "worlds deadliest [to humans] animals" infographic [0], and suicide seems to me like a very clear-cut case of a human killing a human. I don't know why it's excluded, and neither the article nor source explain.
Mosquitoes are amazing biological drones, will find a victim by breath and skin smell (ie. toes), will conceal on dark surfaces from a distance so they have a space model of their victim's location, they also search for holes in clothing and bite thru it if possible. If they get too full of blood and heavy will walk to a safe location, will dodge attacks from larger animals, and begin a erratic flight pattern and free-falls to get lost. Also they are born with enough energy to fly a considerable distance.
I am convinced they can also phase-shift out of this plane or something...
You can be following a mosquito with all your attention, and suddenly they just dissapear and no amount of looking around, even with a bright flashlight, will be enough to find them.
Until you give up, go do something else and they come back.
Donating to anti-malaria charities is a highly cost-effective way to improve lives per dollar spent - see Give Well's top charities if you are interested in how you can make a difference: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities
This is the sort of technically correct that functionally doesn't help anyone, like arguing "guns don't kill people, bullets do".
If you intentionally broke quarantine, knowing you were sick, knowing you could get other people such, yes, you killed that person. That is not controversial.
How there hasn't been a horror movie about mosquitoes is beyond me.
Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the last century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark attacks. Mosquitoes kill between 1,500 and 2,000 people every day. Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/chart-of-the-day-mosq...
On a more scientific note, it is my firm belief that the benefits of exterminating all species of mosquitoes on the globe far outweigh the consequences on the food chain. If I had Bill Gates money, this is one of the projects I would work on.
The Gates foundation has granted billions of dollars for malaria research including mosquito control. And Bill himself released some (possibly imaginary) mosquitoes into the TED audience to make this point, which was pretty hilarious. “There’s no reason only poor people should have the experience,” he said.
My theory is it’s because people respond emotionally to drama but not numbers. A shark attack, a plane crash, and an explosion are all much more dramatic but less deadly. What would the dramatic terror scene be? Someone swiping away a mosquito? Very boring. So that’s not what gets made into movies.
Secondly, the Gates Foundation does a TON of work with mosquitos and protective nets! They have saved tens of millions of lives. Whenever I have some money to donate and do research on what is the most effective use of each dollar, mosquito nets rise to the top.
If you are reasonably healthy, reasonably young, and reasonably well-off, you’ll most probably not die from any mosquito-transmitted disease. And most people think that they belong to that group. None of the above will protect you from a shark once it found you.
Yet due to the precautionary principle, we will not eradicate them as a species, since it might cause some human death.
It seems illogical to me that almost 1 million dead for sure is preferable to a low percentage risk of a few thousand that might die say due to chemical pollution from the bugspray selected: even at a very conservative 1% risk, eradicating mosquitoes can't cause 100 million death -- and that's only counting 1 year, while we should use a sum over 10 years, but even then with a 5% discount rate for uncertainty it still doesn't make sense to prefer inaction.
You should look into the DDT effort and the consequences of it. You are grossly oversimplifying and making it sound like everyone is just sitting around leaning on “the precautionary principle.”
If only we had a solution to this problem. Oh wait, we do. Malaria used to be endemic in the USA[1]. The solution is basically carpet bombing DDT for several years to wipe out the diseased mosquito population. But some idiot do-gooder decided to raise a fuss about songbirds so now we continue to have hundreds of thousands of human beings needlessly die. And of course we now know that the birds recovered just fine. What’s worse the so-called responsible uses of DDT like infused netting are just artificially selecting for DDT resistance without wiping out the disease reservoir as was done in the USA.
Edit: fascinating that people think a few generations of songbirds whose populations fully recovered are more important than 700,000 human lives a year.
[+] [-] bamboozled|3 years ago|reply
I once visited Indonesia and stayed at this place which was essentially jungle. I thought I was going to get destroyed by mosquitoes and yes we did have nets etc, but I was surprised at the lack of mosquitoes when outside.
I spoke with the owner who me that he doesn't worry much about mosquito born illness because he ensures there is no still water anywhere near his place. He said the most dangerous place for this type of thing was near small cities and towns because lots of dirty still water is present in gutters and pot holes etc. These places are breeding grounds for things like dengue fever according to the locals.
I can't really verify how true this but anecdotally I had a similar experience when I lived in a city, we started to get a LOT of mosquitoes hanging around our yard during rainy season. I went outside and noticed that many peoples bike tarps had sagged and formed ponds which had tons of mosquitoes hanging around them. I remembered what I learned on my trip and cleared all the water away. I do think it helped.
Definitely not trying to state this stuff as fact, just thought it would be interesting to share.
[+] [-] can16358p|3 years ago|reply
I'm someone who helps a bee/spider/any insect find its way instead of killing, but for some reason I literally want every mosquito on the planet to die.
Perhaps this explains it.
[+] [-] climb_stealth|3 years ago|reply
/edit
Someone mentioned flies. Don't come to Australia if you have a problem with flies. Those fuckers are scared of nothing and they respect nothing. They just sit in your face whilst you are walking and don't give a shit. Much worse than the European ones that are flying around but don't really land on skin.
[+] [-] FredPret|3 years ago|reply
I moved from Africa with its noisy mosquitoes to Canada where the mosquitoes are silent but the bites are violent.
[+] [-] tluyben2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] animal531|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WithinReason|3 years ago|reply
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/
[+] [-] rossdavidh|3 years ago|reply
Depending on your background, you are either amazed that we are the second-biggest threat to ourselves because it's so self-destructive, or because you were convinced we had to be our own worst enemy.
[+] [-] rdubz|3 years ago|reply
https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index...
Seems to me that traffic deaths are "caused by" humans... not totally surprised they have decided those don't count, but I feel that that's wrong.
[+] [-] TheDong|3 years ago|reply
The source is a "worlds deadliest [to humans] animals" infographic [0], and suicide seems to me like a very clear-cut case of a human killing a human. I don't know why it's excluded, and neither the article nor source explain.
[0]: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit...
[+] [-] ffhhj|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saganus|3 years ago|reply
You can be following a mosquito with all your attention, and suddenly they just dissapear and no amount of looking around, even with a bright flashlight, will be enough to find them.
Until you give up, go do something else and they come back.
[+] [-] boomboomsubban|3 years ago|reply
edit seems to have been changed.
[+] [-] jannes|3 years ago|reply
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit...
[+] [-] user3939382|3 years ago|reply
There’s been bloodshed on both sides.
[+] [-] Omin|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seattle_spring|3 years ago|reply
Not enough.
[+] [-] SapporoChris|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ncmncm|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dotsam|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sonicggg|3 years ago|reply
If I have Covid-19, I pass it to you, and you die, does it mean I killed you?
[+] [-] dijit|3 years ago|reply
if you did it intentionally; yes.
Relevant/related topic (though about another transmissible disease): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_transmission_of_HIV
[+] [-] moron4hire|3 years ago|reply
If you intentionally broke quarantine, knowing you were sick, knowing you could get other people such, yes, you killed that person. That is not controversial.
[+] [-] burke|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Victerius|3 years ago|reply
Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the last century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark attacks. Mosquitoes kill between 1,500 and 2,000 people every day. Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/chart-of-the-day-mosq...
On a more scientific note, it is my firm belief that the benefits of exterminating all species of mosquitoes on the globe far outweigh the consequences on the food chain. If I had Bill Gates money, this is one of the projects I would work on.
[+] [-] wrs|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chewz|3 years ago|reply
I do not want to be cynical but that statistic might explain inaction...
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
[+] [-] bricemo|3 years ago|reply
Secondly, the Gates Foundation does a TON of work with mosquitos and protective nets! They have saved tens of millions of lives. Whenever I have some money to donate and do research on what is the most effective use of each dollar, mosquito nets rise to the top.
[+] [-] nataz|3 years ago|reply
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_(film)
[+] [-] CamperBob2|3 years ago|reply
Mosquitoes aren't just deadly, they're boring, and that's an even worse sin.
[+] [-] SnowHill9902|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] car_analogy|3 years ago|reply
Ghosts and zombies have claimed even fewer lives. Meanwhile, no horror movies are about cancer or heart disease.
[+] [-] wincy|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dang|3 years ago|reply
Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23351643 - May 2020 (392 comments)
[+] [-] csdvrx|3 years ago|reply
It seems illogical to me that almost 1 million dead for sure is preferable to a low percentage risk of a few thousand that might die say due to chemical pollution from the bugspray selected: even at a very conservative 1% risk, eradicating mosquitoes can't cause 100 million death -- and that's only counting 1 year, while we should use a sum over 10 years, but even then with a 5% discount rate for uncertainty it still doesn't make sense to prefer inaction.
I believe it's a case of status-quo bias.
[+] [-] svnt|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WalterGR|3 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_control#Proposals_to_...
[+] [-] BurningFrog|3 years ago|reply
There is active research into eradicating those.
[+] [-] lisper|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] varajelle|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yboris|3 years ago|reply
> James Tibenderana on the state of the art in malaria control and elimination
https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/james-tibenderana-ma...
[+] [-] siva7|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Vladimof|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] henearkr|3 years ago|reply
So, if we could design a cure for mosquitoes, that would be really a good thing for both humans and nature.
Maybe similar to what we already do with wolbachia to cure mosquitoes of arboviruses such as dengue or zika.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] User23|3 years ago|reply
Edit: fascinating that people think a few generations of songbirds whose populations fully recovered are more important than 700,000 human lives a year.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
[+] [-] throwaway290|3 years ago|reply
The least death-prone environment for humans is probably sterile with no other lifeforms...
[+] [-] iLoveOncall|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moffkalast|3 years ago|reply