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Comment by _Microft | Hacker News Reader

Then, maybe, you are living in a place where nobody should have lived in the first place. Population in areas that are not really suited for us is a more widespread problem than we like to admit.

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Through a number of months each year at my house, shaded gardening at almost any time of the day, or sitting outside for a drink with friends in the afternoon, is a constant battle with mosquitoes. It's a largely dry and urban area but all it takes is a neighbour with an uncovered watertank or still pond and it is quickly frustrating. It's not tropical or swampy. No lakes. Barely have creeks. And Aboriginal populations were here long before settlers arrived centuries ago to displace them.

Find and grow the right plants (they cant stand the smell of quite a few). I cant remember the names but I remember my grandmom used to grow a specific bunch around sitout areas and windows. If that doesnt work try incense.

Looked up the plants people typically mention and we already have those. We often use mosquito coils/incense. Helps slightly but isn't practical if you're just gardening in a shaded area and mosquitoes hassle you constantly. Still, could be worse - could have biting midges in my garden.

Then almost no humans should be alive anywhere. Almost all river valleys are former swamps, laid dry somewhere between antiquity and now to be habitable and arable. Rome was a swamp dried out by the cloaca maxima, among other reasons to get rid of the mosquito plague and associated diseases.

We have made land habitable for millenia, you are arguing for a return to stoneage levels of settlement.

That's a problem in Poland too, and if mild continental European climate isn't "meant" for human habitation then I'm afraid nowhere is.

I admit to exaggeration. Humans shoehorning themselves into environments first and then trying to change that environment is just a pet peeve of mine.

Draining swamps, irrigating the desert, damming rivers, reclaiming land from the sea or cutting down forests are bad enough but advocating to wipe out a species is a whole another level imo.

I get your peeve, all good.

Erm. Parasites which feed upon humans, were with us as we evolved.

Mosquitoes, noseeums have been with us from the start! If you live in a place without them, you are living where humans shouldn't, for mosquitoes thrive in environments where humans thrive.

Which are the places people “should” have lived in the first place? Presumably places where clothing and shelter weren’t necessary to survive?

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