army1987 comments on Fighting Mosquitos - Less Wrong

17 Post author: ChristianKl 16 October 2014 11:53AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (73)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: trifith 16 October 2014 12:06:39PM 9 points [-]

I'm a little cautious about deliberately eliminating a species, even a harmful to humans one. The environment is a complex system, and sticking our monkey hands in and pulling leavers can backfire in unpredicted ways.

What other environmental effects do the mosquitoes have? Do they control some other pest species? Are they food for something larger? Does the additional infection vector of mosquito bites significantly improve the general immune system functions of humans or other species bitten by these mosquitoes?

Comment author: [deleted] 17 October 2014 11:42:21AM 4 points [-]

Case in point: the Four Pests Campaign.

Comment author: Azathoth123 18 October 2014 12:47:47AM 1 point [-]

Well, three out four parts of the campaign went well. We could start with a pilot program in a limited area to see if the pest being eliminated is more like sparrows. If it is, we stop it and the sparrows repopulate the region. If it isn't we expand.