Are you ready for Zika?

[SP33Demon]

:awe:

Although, I was going on the assumption that the image in the OP was of the expected spread of the virus when I made that statement. Apparently, that's just the range of two species of mosquito that can carry the virus. Either way, it ain't gonna rape us all like the media might make it seem.

If it spreads to the range of the two mosquitos it could have a huge impact on outdoor activities. Depending on the strain (CNS damage?).

 

[master_shake_]

i asked this once before in the ebola thread.

what is the fear of killing every single mosquito in the world?

edit: it was a zika thread.

So, again: what would be so bad about just killing the little b******s? You’d think that question would provoke outrage and backlash from the mosquito-studying community, but in recent years some high-profile mosquito experts upended that assumption. Despite lifetimes spent studying the insects, they argue that mosquitoes could be exterminated with little global impact. The animals of the world might just buy us dinner, as thanks.
How can that be? Mosquitoes represent an enormous amount of biomass on Earth. They affect the behavior of all manner of species, act as an abundant food source for insect-eaters, drive the evolution of all sorts of defense mechanisms. Yet there seems to be good evidence showing that we could easily survive their absence — in fact, we might not notice any downside at all.
If true, this fact seems to stem from the species’ small size and quick nature; even those species that eat mosquitoes generally only use them to supplement their diet. Few animals will starve as a result of the loss, and many others will live.

http://www.geek.com/science/geek-an...-bad-if-we-killed-all-the-mosquitoes-1583955/

looks like win-win to me.

 

[Red Squirrel]

While mosquitoes serve as food to a lot of other insects/animals I imagine there are other source of food too that those same creatures have. Best bet is replace mosquitoes with something similar but that does not sting/bite. Maybe make a GMO mosquito that feeds off nectar instead or something, bonus if you can get it to polinate plants too, as we will soon have no more bees. On the other hand, messing with nature is usually not a good thing.

 

[DrPizza]

It's not like you can snap your fingers and make mosquitoes extinct. And, afaik, there isn't a mosquito to mosquito transmission of some sort of mosquito disease. I.e., some evil person might be able to screw around with a flu virus and make it very infectious to humans, with a high mortality rate. But, there aren't viruses that spread from mosquito to mosquito.

 

[Imp]

It's not like you can snap your fingers and make mosquitoes extinct. And, afaik, there isn't a mosquito to mosquito transmission of some sort of mosquito disease. I.e., some evil person might be able to screw around with a flu virus and make it very infectious to humans, with a high mortality rate. But, there aren't viruses that spread from mosquito to mosquito.

Maybe not snap your fingers, but a couple buttons, a nuclear holocaust later, and best case scenario, the survivors of the fallout will be dealing with mutated, bear-sized mosquitos they can easily shoot.