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Comment by Maursault | Hacker News Reader

I hate bug zappers. They should be illegal. All they do is kill moths and beetles. They are entirely ineffective against mosquitoes and other biting flies, and their otherwise indiscriminate killing disrupts pollination and generally throws the local environment completely out of balance.

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Mosquitoes are pollinators, only the females suck blood, and that's only to produce eggs.

Wow! Learned something new today. I've been misinformed into believe that mosquitoes are useless, and we should wipe them out.

They are useless and harmful, there are far better pollinators than mosquitos.

They are part of the ecosystem and are efficient pollinators. Without mosquito larvae, for example, aquatic animals such as tadpoles and such would have less to eat.

There are 3500 species of mosquito, of which only about 200 bite humans. If we eliminated biting mosquitos, tad poles and such will still have plenty of non-biting mosquito larvae to eat. And compared to bees and moths, mosquitos are not nearly as efficient pollinators. If all biting mosquito species suddenly vanished, the effect on ecosystems would be negligible, and it would stop them from killing a million people a year. The benefits would far, far outweigh the risks.

Only ~90 is known to transmit disease.

I'm all for eradicating the diseases, but not really a fan of wiping out entire mosquito species. Eliminating biting mosquitos may have a knock-on effect... possible unforeseen effects that may adversely affect entire ecosystems.

There may be certain species that have evolved to hunt/feed on specific mosquitos, and in turn, other species that rely on these. When they are displaced because of this, it's possible that the checks and constraints on certain species will be reduced.

They may not be efficient pollinators per insect, but they may yet pollinate certain types of plants in certain locations that no other species do efficiently due to sheer numbers.

We've strayed from the topic of bug zappers, which people foolishly install to control mosquitos having no effect, instead killing moths by the generation. If anyone comes up with a viable plan to extinct an entire species of biting mosquito, we can revisit. But at this point, your concern simply isn't credible.

There are certain species that are only pollinated by mosquitoes. Orchids for example.

Orchids are not only pollinated by mosquitos. While there are some orchids that have a single insect species pollinator, this is not the case with the orchid that mosquitos pollinate, the blunt-leaved orchid, which is also pollinated by other insects.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanthera_obtusata

They also move nutrients down the food chain. The larvae and the mosquitoes they produce feed lots of birds and other insects.

Up the foodchain, sorry for beeing a pedant.

Unless the parent was explicitly referring to the nutrients that they get from us, at the top.

as my vector algebra teacher always said... up, down, same thing.

From a mosquito's pov it might be down the foodchain.

> Mosquitoes are pollinators

Of the 3500 species of mosquito, only 6% bite humans. Of the 200 indigenous species of mosquitos in the US, only 12 of them bite humans. Mosquitos are the world's deadliest animal, killing a million people a year. Moths don't kill anyone, and if they're more efficient than bees at pollination, then they're likely more efficient than mosquitos. If we eliminated only the biting species of mosquito, any detrimental effects on pollination or the food chain would be negligible.

Interesting. Never had one but I never thought about it. So there aren’t any more pesty bugs that it’s effective against?

Should fly swatters be illegal too?

You're equating genocide to a mugging. It's a strikingly poor analogy.

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