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Geckos will eat mosquitoes and other small insects. I see them crawling up the outside screens of my lanai looking for bugs to eat. These little critters are very FAST when it comes to a meal. lol
The way I see it, it is a win for the democratic party. The more babies born with zika = more potential voters.
Was it really necessary to insult 55% of your fellow Americans this morning? We were talking about a virus that causes life threatening birth defects, and the insect that carries it. That has to be turned into politics? Really?
Hawaii up until the 1800s was mosquito free. It's thought that a European sailing ship dumped some water out of a barrel that contained larvae and thus unfortunately introduced this pest to a paradise. Not only an annoyance, the mosquitoes have actually helped kill off many of the native birds of Hawaii by spreading avian malaria.
There are some 3500 known species of mosquitoes, of which 200 feed on blood (the females only). The rest are just insects that live on pollen and whatever else. Out of those 200 blood suckers, about 7 species carry disease. The Aedes Aegypti, which carries zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever is invasive to the Americas and should be eradicated. The Anopheles carries malaria and is responsible for millions of human deaths per year.
So what can be done? Spraying poison is effective, but it also kills beneficial creatures, causing great ecological damage; also, poisons can cause human disease.
Natural predators -- bats, fish, dragonflies -- all attack mosquitoes in various stages of the life cycle. Dragonflies can eat hundreds of mosquitoes an hour and literally rid the area of these pests. Bats, also. But unfortunately, bats also eat dragonflies and will preferentially go for the larger, juicier insects. Fish eat mosquitoes in the larval form, and in fact dragonfly nymphs which exist in the water will also eat mosquito larvae.
BTi (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) is a bacteria that emits toxins deadly to mosquitoes and black flies in larval form, yet seems to be harmless to other life forms. It was discovered in Israel in 1976 and is sold as a puck (also called mosquito dunks) at most hardware stores. Toss one in a pond or swimming pool that has mosquitoes, and it will kill them off safely.
A laser mosquito system was demonstrated on TED a few years ago. Cameras recognize the mosquitoes (they even can tell the females from the males) and a laser zaps the bugs. Look for these to be installed in affluent back yards around the country in a few years.
The ultimate solution is genetic engineering. The British company Oxitec has invented a modified male mosquito that produces sterile offspring and causes a population implosion. Field tests in Brazil reduced the Aedes (zika-carrying) population by 90% in one suburb of Sao Paulo. There was an attempt to test it in Key West, Florida, but the residents objected. This approach has to be reused every breeding season, or else the population will bounce back eventually.
There's a more long term genetic modification approach that spreads the sterility mutation over several generations before the mosquitoes become sterile. This method would probably kill off mosquitoes entirely.
Should we wipe out disease-carrying, blood sucking mosquitoes? In my opinion, the answer is yes. They cause millions of deaths and much suffering among humans and other mammals, and life will go on without them. We obviously have to make sure we don't end up with another Africanized bee fiasco, as the Floridians fear, but so far, there's no evidence that the mutation does anything but kill skeeters.
For now... put on that DEET or citronella before you venture out of doors, and get rid of standing water.
It is possible that someone who got the Zika virus from out of United States travel returned, and was then bitten by a mosquito locally. That mosquito then infecting this person. Our govt needs to get on this quick and hard. I'm sure they would have acted more accordingly if this wasn't an election year.
Do you really expect a bureaucracy, which has no immediate interests other than expanding its own power and influence, to be able to do anything about this other than call for a bigger staff and access to more tax dollars.
Overgrown, easily-impressed children, obsessed with security when no program to address the problem has even been devised, are the real problem in the developed world of the present day.
I think I'm a conservative person when it comes to matters of fiscal public policy. But when it comes to societal issues, I like to think I am open minded. I am in favor of women's rights when it comes to terminating a pregnancy in early development, and particularly in cases of rape, incest, or imminent health danger to the woman or the baby. this is where I cannot vote a straight ticket in elections. This Zika virus issue is yet another thing we need to consider when it comes to public policy.
Poison Pill Legislation for Zika Funding. It is perfectly fine for local government to hand out birth control (condoms) as a Zika pregnancy/spread prevention, but not Planned Parenthood? PP only provides abortions but not all other forms of birth control?
Or maybe they think that pregnancy prevention in all cases, Zika or not, should be illegal? Abstinence Only to prevent pregnancy and Zika transmission? Pesticides that can cause birth defects themselves, like DDT, is the solution? The US sent a shipment of a pesticide to Puerto Rico which is know to cause birth defects. It is being stored, and banned from use there. Condoms are worse than this?
Do you really expect a bureaucracy, which has no immediate interests other than expanding its own power and influence, to be able to do anything about this other than call for a bigger staff and access to more tax dollars.
Overgrown, easily-impressed children, obsessed with security when no program to address the problem has even been devised, are the real problem in the developed world of the present day.
Do you really expect a bureaucracy, which has no immediate interests other than expanding its own power and influence, to be able to do anything about this other than call for a bigger staff and access to more tax dollars.
Overgrown, easily-impressed children, obsessed with security when no program to address the problem has even been devised, are the real problem in the developed world of the present day.
Oh please. Don't you ever tired of spouting your "government is always wrong" mantra?
The United States has the best system in the world for bringing an abundance of safe and new medicines and vaccines onto the market. It works precisely because its a good combination of private business and government entities that are staffed with competent professionals and operate a mandate that requires proof that new medicines and vaccines are safe and effective, yet charges government agencies, such as the FDA, with the responsibility of approving drugs that serve the public interest.
Honestly, if you're going to get up here and make that sort of claim, at least offer some proof.
Zika was not known to be a problem until literally months ago. If you think a vaccine or other effective strategy can be devised against a disease that quickly.....well.....you don't know much about medical research.
I'm afraid this isn't a good topic for you to prove the superiority of libertarian political philosophy.
Last edited by markg91359; 07-23-2016 at 04:32 PM..
Do mosquitos play any positive role in our environment? I can't think of one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chadgates
The mosquito larvae are an integral part of the aquatic food chain.
Yes this. I think it was something like it would do such damage to the food chain it would kill off people in 3 years.
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