this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
768 points (96.9% liked)

Science Memes

11426 readers
2898 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Ma10gan@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say that nothing bad happened. America -- particularly urban areas where anti-mosquito measures have been implemented -- has been dealing with declines of important populations of birds and insects, and we don't fully understand the exact causes. Which is to say, we don't know what role mosquito population reduction has played in this. We have vaccines against mosquito-borne illnesseses, which I believe are preferable to eradicating a species and the potentially devastating consequences we could encounter.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I would argue that habitat destruction, the introduction of hypercarivores, and chemical spraying would have a much larger effect on bird and insect populations around urban areas than a reduction in mosquitoes, but I'll admit that I haven't done any research (primary or secondary) on the topic.

My point was that a genetic attack vector would have far less side-effects than DDT, and pointing out the flaws of DDT does nothing to criticize attacking mosquitoes genetically.

[–] Ma10gan@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago

That's true. Criticizing DDT was off-track.