The reason why more than a few thousand people can now live in the Levantine part of the Middle East is because Second Aliyah Jews starting in the early 1900s drained the local swamps with the help of Christians, Arabs and the resident Jews whose ancestors survived the Roman and Arab purges of the past two millenia (washing the salt from the sand also helped)
The Romans had kept the swamps drained for farming purposes, but their imperial successors didn't. When the Ottomans finally decided to fix up the place they didn't have (or didn't want to spend money on) the resources to do it, so they allowed people who weren't Muslim to buy and own land there for the first time in over 1300 years
I believe they are in the process of, or having completed, eliminating a species of Mosquito in Florida but I haven't heard what the project found out. I'm all for getting rid of human pathenogenic mosquitoes. Also ticks and fleas! Lots of animals would be grateful too.
Yes, I'm in favor of eliminating mosquitoes. Releasing sterile mosquitoes could work. I'm wary of widespread nonconsensual spraying, but it might be worth it in some cases.
On an individual level, here in the US it's common to hire companies to spray pyrethroid insecticides monthly. That kills a lot of other insects, plus we like to play it safe while we have babies, so we don't currently do that.
We do use DIY mosquito buckets of doom, i.e. black buckets with water, a bit of decaying leaves, a stick so that frogs etc. can escape, and a BTi dunk that kills mosquito larvae. They help a little. Companies will also maintain proprietary buckets for pay.
We have also had a deposit down on a Tornyol mosquito drone for over a year. The idea is it patrols your yard like a Roomba and intercepts mosquitoes. I hope it ships next year.
It frustrates me that the invasion of Tiger mosquitoes in the US around 2000 has contributed to the decline of outdoor play. There weren't this many mosquitoes when I grew up, or at least they were mainly confined to dawn and dusk. Tiger mosquitoes hunt all day. My kids spend less time outdoors than they otherwise would because of them.
And I think we just learned to better not piss off Tomas when he's about to go to sleep (scnr) :-) . I like the idea of a world without mosquitoes, but I am a bit afraid of the side effects and consequences this could have ('come on, we did it with mosquitoes, let's do xyz next etc')
I read this during our COVID year. It convinced me we can wipe out all the mosquito species without affecting other food changes. They are filling the ecological arbitrage or plain rent seekers. It would be a good thing.
Very cool article, some really interesting research here. I had no idea that China introducing fish in rice paddy fields shrunk malaria! I'm in principle in favour of mozzie reduction programmes but still feel a bit unclear on the potential unintended consequences.
Well, my understanding (and I definitely could be wrong here!) is that in past examples and trails we've removed or modified large chunks of the mosquito population in a specific area or areas. So with the Oxitec trials in Brazil I think it was around 90 or 95% in those regions. By unintended consequences I mean, what could/would happen with 100% elimination of mosquitos in very biodiverse regions for a prolonged period of time. Do mosquitos do something useful (or conversely keep something else at bay) within ecosystems that we are completely unaware of, or that would only become apparently x years down the line.
You don't kill 100% of mosquitoes, that's the thing. You kill 100% of a few species of mosquitoes that only live around humans because they specialized on us. That's like 3-4% of the total number of species.
And I broke down for youn the 4 potential useful things they do, and I explained why their contribution is not relevant
As a rule of thumb, any mosquito that bites humans is bad for us and not very useful in nature except to spread a few buckets of our blood across our local environment. Very useless impact on nature, very bad on us.
The reason why more than a few thousand people can now live in the Levantine part of the Middle East is because Second Aliyah Jews starting in the early 1900s drained the local swamps with the help of Christians, Arabs and the resident Jews whose ancestors survived the Roman and Arab purges of the past two millenia (washing the salt from the sand also helped)
The Romans had kept the swamps drained for farming purposes, but their imperial successors didn't. When the Ottomans finally decided to fix up the place they didn't have (or didn't want to spend money on) the resources to do it, so they allowed people who weren't Muslim to buy and own land there for the first time in over 1300 years
I didn’t know that. Crazy!
I know right!? Most of the areas that weren't swamps were deserts. Non-Muslim land ownership was fully legalized in 1867:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Land_Code_of_1858
You can read about the malaria and salty soil problems here:
https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-arabs-in-palestine
I believe they are in the process of, or having completed, eliminating a species of Mosquito in Florida but I haven't heard what the project found out. I'm all for getting rid of human pathenogenic mosquitoes. Also ticks and fleas! Lots of animals would be grateful too.
Yes, I'm in favor of eliminating mosquitoes. Releasing sterile mosquitoes could work. I'm wary of widespread nonconsensual spraying, but it might be worth it in some cases.
On an individual level, here in the US it's common to hire companies to spray pyrethroid insecticides monthly. That kills a lot of other insects, plus we like to play it safe while we have babies, so we don't currently do that.
We do use DIY mosquito buckets of doom, i.e. black buckets with water, a bit of decaying leaves, a stick so that frogs etc. can escape, and a BTi dunk that kills mosquito larvae. They help a little. Companies will also maintain proprietary buckets for pay.
https://sidewalknature.com/2022/05/08/mosquito-bucket-of-doom/
We have also had a deposit down on a Tornyol mosquito drone for over a year. The idea is it patrols your yard like a Roomba and intercepts mosquitoes. I hope it ships next year.
https://tornyol.com/
It frustrates me that the invasion of Tiger mosquitoes in the US around 2000 has contributed to the decline of outdoor play. There weren't this many mosquitoes when I grew up, or at least they were mainly confined to dawn and dusk. Tiger mosquitoes hunt all day. My kids spend less time outdoors than they otherwise would because of them.
You could nearly write the next article!
Very well written! Also, I had no idea that dogs harm so many humans every year.
Just the one breed
30-50 deaths by dogs in the US per year. The majority of death by dogs comes from rabies and stray attacks - in countries other than the US.
It's not a breed, it's a broad, subjective category that's frequently misapplied.
Which breed is it that does most harm to humans?
And I think we just learned to better not piss off Tomas when he's about to go to sleep (scnr) :-) . I like the idea of a world without mosquitoes, but I am a bit afraid of the side effects and consequences this could have ('come on, we did it with mosquitoes, let's do xyz next etc')
I read this during our COVID year. It convinced me we can wipe out all the mosquito species without affecting other food changes. They are filling the ecological arbitrage or plain rent seekers. It would be a good thing.
https://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Human-History-Deadliest-Predator/dp/1524743410
Very cool article, some really interesting research here. I had no idea that China introducing fish in rice paddy fields shrunk malaria! I'm in principle in favour of mozzie reduction programmes but still feel a bit unclear on the potential unintended consequences.
Thanks!
Why unclear on unintended consequences? From first principles there’s no problem, and we’ve done it in the past without downsides!
Well, my understanding (and I definitely could be wrong here!) is that in past examples and trails we've removed or modified large chunks of the mosquito population in a specific area or areas. So with the Oxitec trials in Brazil I think it was around 90 or 95% in those regions. By unintended consequences I mean, what could/would happen with 100% elimination of mosquitos in very biodiverse regions for a prolonged period of time. Do mosquitos do something useful (or conversely keep something else at bay) within ecosystems that we are completely unaware of, or that would only become apparently x years down the line.
You don't kill 100% of mosquitoes, that's the thing. You kill 100% of a few species of mosquitoes that only live around humans because they specialized on us. That's like 3-4% of the total number of species.
And I broke down for youn the 4 potential useful things they do, and I explained why their contribution is not relevant
Any consideration on Culex pipiens, or common house mosquito? This is not invasive but transmits several infections such as West Nile Virus
Kill it!!
As a rule of thumb, any mosquito that bites humans is bad for us and not very useful in nature except to spread a few buckets of our blood across our local environment. Very useless impact on nature, very bad on us.