Thalwegs t1_iy8s7zj wrote
Reply to comment by Rickshmitt in US bat species devastated by fungus now listed as endangered by zsreport
You would hate the world that existed without yellow jackets or other wasps. The one without mosquitoes or ticks would be similarly changed for the worse. Like them or not, they're important to our ecosystems.
sennbat t1_iy8zxgz wrote
Has there ever been any evidence of the world being worse off without ticks in it? All the other animals listed I can see, but ticks are completely parasitic at every stage in their lifecycle, don't make up any significant part of any creatures diet that I can recall, and generally make things miserable for everything they interact with. Everything I've seen has put ticks as 'ecosystem non-contributors'. They don't have a bunch of redeeming qualities like, say, mosquitos do.
Driving ticks to extinction seems like it would have about the same negative impact as driving ebola or rabies to extinction.
Thalwegs t1_iy933vl wrote
For ticks specifically, not that I know of, but this is outside my realm of study. There is broadly evidence that parasites are beneficial, if not simply important to, ecosystem functioning: they can affect animal behavior, population control and dynamics, serve as prey, etc.
Here is a study hypothesizing benefits of parasites in broader ecosystem processes. For all that humanity does know, there is still an inordinate amount that it does not know, and we should not be so bold or naive to think that we can remove an entire group of organisms without cascading consequences.
Rickshmitt t1_iy9ev50 wrote
Makes sense. That parasite that culls bug populations when they get too large (unless thats been proven wrong like most science i learned in school). I certainly didnt think outside of what feeds on them. Skeeters do kill about 1 million people a year, so thats kind of them
[deleted] t1_iy9p8hq wrote
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petit_cochon t1_iy9v2cm wrote
Possums love ticks!
Atiggerx33 t1_iybdjm3 wrote
Opossums don't need them though. Like ticks aren't a large enough part of their diet that they'd starve to death without ticks.
aaaaaaaarrrrrgh t1_iybobyd wrote
>The one without mosquitoes
Without all of them, yes.
Without the human biting ones, no. There have been studies. We can wipe those off the face of the earth just fine. The birds etc. can just eat the other mosquito species.
Rickshmitt t1_iy8teuw wrote
I hate the world with them in it. Ill take my chances!
windexfresh t1_iy8trbb wrote
Funny that you mention the mosquitoes, because bats eat them.
A lot.
[deleted] t1_iy946ik wrote
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