We are already wiping out in the order of a species a day, usually in an unplanned, "oops" fashion: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/p.... Killing a few more in a planned, methodical fashion after having evaluated their use and harm won't make a lot of difference. Any big "disturbance of the ecosystems" is either already occuring or will fix itself over time. I think the risks are minimal, because we are still alive after all the damage we did already.
No I think the difference is that they directly integrate with humans so much. Particularly with the human immune system, pathogen vectors and genetics. Because they suck our blood. It's a pretty unique parasitic relationship--and often the fate of species, both animal and plant, can turn on their parasitic relationships. Perhaps we are not paying the humble mosquito the dues we naturally owe it?
If we press that lever, we might not be able to undo it, and the consequences might be far worse than we (in our limited individual understandings and imaginations, which seem to become even more limited when elaborated through the rubric of public policy) can right now possibly imagine. Sure, it sounds like fear-mongering, and it might be...if they really are useless. But are we so sure? Is it worth it to take that risk?
Consider that air pollution kills ten times (10!) as many as mosquitos. Well, we should just eradicate all fossil fuels. Wipe them from the face of the Earth. But of course, we will not--why? because we see how integrated these disease producing fossil fuels are into our modern energy and supply chains. We see their utility in the 'gross anatomy' of our industrialized civilization clearly. But I think it is not widely appreciated the utility of the mosquito in the much more subtle, but more complex and numerous subtle anatomy of the networks of our ecological and bodily systems. Eradicating them is worse than (the incredibly horrid and stupid hypothetical idea of) say wiping out all gut bacteria in terms of damage, potentially. Anyone who seems eager to take that risk and has the gall to affect society like that with grand statements of "wipe them all out"-- I think is crazy and dangerous. The risk is too great.
Let's find ways to cure/combat the illnesses that don't involve taking out a key transport system in the global biome. It's like saying because crazy people can send letter bombs and con-persons can send fraud, we must execute all postal employees and dismantle all courier companies, if they've ever been misused. Because the internet can carry viruses to your computer, we must sever all submarine cables, and tear down all cell towers. It's sort of a sickness, an overgrowth of desire to use the clever technical genetic tools we can develop to watch as we humans hold the fate of a whole race of things in our hands. Let's use those clever genetic tricks to fight disease not bring the entire infrastructure down, in a fit of intoxication with our own self-importance, finger on the button of destruction, in a rapture of obsession with our very human world-conquering mania.
Mm, I agree there's overlap. But not total. Vaccines are effective tools, but we can't replicate the natural ecosystem and exposure to it, not yet anyway. I agree that vaccines are the closest tech we have to doing this...but they won't replace mozzies.
If we get rid of mozzies we will then need to adopt responsibility for the role the mosquito played, and we might not be able to do that, and even if we can our solutions might cause other problems. It's sort of like saying, "fertilizer can replicate the role of funghi for plants, because fertilizer brings nutrients to plants". So if we decided to get rid of all funghi from the soil (crazy plan), we can just replace it with fertilizer. Problem solved. But not really...This is a metaphor (about the risk and difficulty of replicating a natural system we decide to remove from the ecosystem) not meant to be facsimile.
Look it probably doesn't matter if they only kill aegypti (but it might, it still might be a disaster). I just think it's dangerous to play with that kind of stuff. Let's remove the pathogen, not the vector.
