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KennyBlanken06/16/20253 repliesview on HN

Except for all the living things that eat mosquitos, and which in turn get eaten by other things, or eat other pests besides mosquitos


Replies

JumpCrisscross06/17/2025

> Except for all the living things that eat mosquitos, and which in turn get eaten by other things, or eat other pests besides mosquitoes

The mosquitoes that cause disease in humans are almost uniquely ecologically useless [1]. Particularly in North America, where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is "believed to have arrived to the Americas during the 17th century by ship during the slave trade" [2].

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a

[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5938790/

autoexec06/16/2025

Is there any living thing that eats mosquitos and nothing else? There seems to be no shortage of other tiny flying insects in the world for critters to munch on.

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moffkalast06/16/2025

They can eat something else, we can make them mosquito shaped dietary supplements if they want.

We've driven almost a thousand species to extinction so far, we ought to finally do one that actually deserves it.

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