Mosquitoes kill more people than people do, which is a lot (humans murder about 475,000 people each year, while mosquitoes' count is closer to a million:
http://bit.ly/208PPuA). And with the rapid spread of the Zika virus, they're back in the news. A recent story about mosquitoes being genetically modified to produce
offspring that die before they can reproduce had me thinking about a
world without these little suckers. Of course, there are many species of mosquito, and only 6 percent of those bother humans. Of those, only half ~ or 100 species ~ can spread disease. So what would happen if we managed to get rid of them? Would there be unforeseen negative repercussions? And what are the moral implications of our choosing which species should live and which should die out? While that's debated, scientists are coming up with some pretty ingenious solutions. ... Wonder what happened to the Kite Patch (
http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-mosquito-flies-by.html)? :
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35408835
The name "mosquito," btw, comes from Spanish and means "little fly." "Fly," in Spanish, is "mosca," and "ito" or "ita" tacked to the end of a word makes it a diminutive. Cute name for such an annoying insect.
We know that mosquitoes breed in standing water. So what about rain barrels? How do we keep them from becoming mosquito nurseries without having to resort to toxic chemicals? It seems that the easiest way is to cover the opening with a fine-screen, rust-resistant mesh:
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/keep-mosquitoes-out-rain-barrels-83845.html
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