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Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by WaxProlix on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:05PM (#14773171)
I recall hearing when I was younger that mosquitoes were an outlier in the natural world. With most species, the balance of any food web would be pretty thoroughly disrupted by a major culling. As I heard it, this isn't the case for mosquitoes - if you could press a button and kill them all tomorrow, most ecosystems would be largely unimpacted.

Am I just making this up/misremembering it?

Edit: found a few sources.

Pro-mosquitocide:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoes...

Anti-mosquitocide:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if-every-mosquito-on-earth-went-...

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by TheSpiceIsLife on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:18PM (#14773263)
I believe I recall reading that if we were to eliminate only the disease carry mosquitoes, those responsible for transmitting maleria, dengue fever, Ross river virus) there ought not be a problem in the ecological web of life as other mosquitoes would fill the void.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by SubiculumCode on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:26PM (#14773337)
Yes. Most mosquito species do not actually bite.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by CydeWeys on Friday July 14, 2017 @08:10PM (#14774260)
They don't feed on people, or they don't feed in general? If the latter, how do they even survive? They eat in their larval form but then not as adults?
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by TheSpiceIsLife on Friday July 14, 2017 @08:21PM (#14774309)
The Wikipedia article has more detail:

Typically, both male and female mosquitoes feed on nectar and plant juices, but in many species the mouthparts of the females are adapted for piercing the skin of animal hosts and sucking their blood as ectoparasites. In many species, the female needs to obtain nutrients from a blood meal before it can produce eggs, whereas in many other species, it can produce more eggs after a blood meal. A mosquito has a variety of ways of finding its prey, including chemical, visual, and heat sensors.[36] Both plant materials and blood are useful sources of energy in the form of sugars, and blood also supplies more concentrated nutrients, such as lipids, but the most important function of blood meals is to obtain proteins as materials for egg production.[1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Feeding_by_adults

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by fatmotherpucker on Saturday July 15, 2017 @08:02AM (#14776249)
Let's pick out each mosquito one by one to check which one we should kill or release then.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by PhasmaFelis on Friday July 14, 2017 @06:29PM (#14773713)
I did a bit of research a while back, and it seemed to agree. Mosquitoes don't keep any other species in check (since their victims rarely die), and they aren't a primary food source for anything; bats will snap them up all night long, but they're still a minority of the stomach contents because they're so small. They are pollinators--I hadn't known that--but, again, they're not primary pollinators for anything, not like bees.

I don't recall reading anything specific about the larvae's importance in aquatic biomes, though, so the anti-mosquitocide guy may have a point.

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by stephengillie on Friday July 14, 2017 @06:34PM (#14773734)
Maybe they keep bats too busy to eat a more nutritious prey animal, and keep the population from expanding though malnourishment? Similar to the diet of a panda bear, though they unfortunately have no higher-caloric alternative.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by allendoerfer on Friday July 14, 2017 @07:56PM (#14774183)
I think mammals are smart enough to eat the food with the most nutritions per effort.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by vkrm on Saturday July 15, 2017 @12:52AM (#14775089)
Pandas and Koalas have extremely poor diets in terms of nutrition. It's likely there are other examples as well.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by red75prime on Saturday July 15, 2017 @12:10PM (#14777370)
Looks like evolutionary dead end.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by tren on Friday July 14, 2017 @07:19PM (#14773992)
I've heard that certain places have remained naturally pristine because mosquitoes have prevented humans from establishing there. I think there is something to this line of thinking.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by tgjsrkghruksd on Saturday July 15, 2017 @04:16AM (#14775625)
These tend to be swampy wetlands, and people have drained and developed swamps all the time for hundreds of years.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by hyperbovine on Saturday July 15, 2017 @04:39AM (#14775684)
... in part because they hate all the bugs.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by soperj on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:13PM (#14773231)
Mosquitoes are also pollinators.

I believe orchids are one flower that is mostly pollinated by mosquitoes.

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by teddyg1 on Friday July 14, 2017 @06:02PM (#14773562)
In this case, the particular species that carries Zika (aedes aegypti) does not pollinate any plant species in any meaningful way.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by randyrand on Friday July 14, 2017 @07:07PM (#14773929)
I believe this is the case for most organisms. Even humans are included.

Only a relative few would cause wide spread extinction.

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by acheron on Saturday July 15, 2017 @09:08AM (#14776454)
Your "pro" articles: Nature, and National Geographic.

Your "anti" article: Gawker.

Yeah, I think we're safe.

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by joegosse on Saturday July 15, 2017 @10:18AM (#14776719)
While unlikely a factor in this case, I wouldn't be so quick to trust National Geographic as it is a for-profit company owned by 21st Century Fox (of Fox News fame). Its credibility shouldn't be categorized on equal footing as Nature.

https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/9/9296815/national-geographi...

Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by mattkrause on Sunday July 16, 2017 @10:02AM (#14781990)
It's important to note that the magazine is owned (partially) by Fox, but the National Geographic Society is still its own thing.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by Retric on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:35PM (#14773389)
They are a food source, but generally not a critical one.
Re:Google is releasing 20M bacteria-infected mosquitoes in F... by takeda on Friday July 14, 2017 @05:07PM (#14773183)
I can only confirm that I heard that as well, but have no idea how true it is.