Re:Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
by blisterpeanuts on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @03:42PM
(#11537158)
Really? Seems like it would be pretty easy to recreate a population of wild type mosquitoes. Just freeze a bunch of eggs.
But that probably won't be necessary. Mosquitoes are too successful to be that easily wiped out. Probably best we can hope for is to get rid of 80-90% of them.
Getting rid of 80-90% of them won't do, they reproduce in such large numbers that they'll rebound in a generation or two. You really do have to aim for wiping them out completely.
Re:Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
by blisterpeanuts on Thursday April 21, 2016 @12:59AM
(#11539793)
I'm all for wiping them out totally and forever, but I doubt it's possible. Probably we'll have to settle for 90% and maybe less in the tougher environments like the wet tropics.
Re:Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes
by charlieflowers on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @05:58PM
(#11538062)
> Just freeze a bunch of eggs.
Sadly, I never thought of that. Great point.
Neither would killing of the last few panda (stupid, useless animal), but we wouldn't actually do it. With mosquitoes, do to their large numbers, it would seem like a bit of a gamble. If we're wrong it would be hard to undo killing all the mosquitoes.