On Thu, May 08, 2003 at 09:45:18AM -0700, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
At 07:04 PM 5/7/03 -0700, Mike Rosing wrote:
A world without mosquitoes would be pretty bleak given how many other things eat them. Better to wipe out the malaria and swat the mosquitos!
Still, you're in the minority. If one could kill all the blood-biting mosquitoes without killing other bugs, birds, 'gators, etc it would be a good thing. Even if you eliminated malaria its not a good vector to have around.
And I bet most people would accept losing a very few species, or reducing the productivity of mosquito areas (probably temporarily), to get rid of the mosquito. Throw in poison ivy/oak extinction to convince most of the greens who hike and you've got a winner :-)
Not I. My attire most of the Summer is just tank top and shorts, with very open sandals, no socks - and a spend a lot of time wandaring through the woods hunting mushrooms. My favorite mushroom woods is just thick with poison ivy, I don't even bother to try to avoid it, just wade thru it. And I used to be very allergic to it years ago, but I think you must desensitize to it the more you're around it. And as I said before, the mosquitoes really aren't that bad, just quit swatting at them. I'll take bugs over smokers anytime.
--- "When one tugs at a single thing in Nature, he finds it hitched to the rest of the Universe" - John Muir --- You can buy patented mice and you're not allowed to copy them. -the state of bio IP
-- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com