Personal insect/bird size drone, whose sole purpose is to hover near its owner, and destroy approaching mosquitoes. Preferably with lasers.-- theircompetitor, Sep 15 2016 Insect size drones. https://www.youtube...watch?v=KMI7HIhKdIo [theircompetitor, Sep 15 2016] Ahem... Just lead them away, you say? My time to shine Cat_20Depilation_20Pack [21 Quest, Sep 23 2016] // destroy ... with lasers. //
Immediate bun. [+]-- 8th of 7, Sep 15 2016 Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system somewhere, if not here in some other Universe. Just lead them away home. With warm blood or something. They don't bite me, so they are my friends.-- blissmiss, Sep 16 2016 May ten times ten billion spiders infest your bathroom.-- 8th of 7, Sep 16 2016 //Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system somewhere, if not here in some other Universe//
bird feed?-- theircompetitor, Sep 16 2016 //Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system somewhere,//
I remember talking to a malaria expert about this. The general gist was that mosquitoes in general might well be. however, only a small proportion of total mosquito species bother humans, only a handful of species bite humans and carry anything nasty, and in the case of malaria only the 10-20% of the most long lived get to transmit malaria because of how long the life cycle is. So if we wiped out a couple of species it would probably be no biggie, and we don't even need to do that, just find a way of cutting a day or so off their lifespan.
Personally, I think killing them all and observing is the only sure way to know their full role. For science, you understand.-- bs0u0155, Sep 16 2016 It's got to be worth a try.-- 8th of 7, Sep 16 2016 Mosquito is such an elegant and sophisticated and romantic name. People would be more willing to eliminate them if they were called vampire gnats. or some such.-- r_kreher, Sep 18 2016 //Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system somewhere// I'd go further than [bs] did, a few lines above. I was talking to one of the guys who is creating embryo-lethal mosquito mutants (to breed with, and wipe out, local populations). He said that in fact very few mosquito species make any significant contribution to the ecosystem. A few are pollinators (but only very minor pollinators, and they are redundant with other insects). And of course they provide food for various animals (but again, only as a small part of a larger menu). It turns out that wiping them out would probably not be an environmental disastrophe. Even mosquitologists tend to agree. They are one of the few groups of animals which are studied largely in order to help eradicate them. Human Resources Managers are the only other example I can think of.
//Mosquito is such an elegant and sophisticated and romantic name// My father, I think, spent some time in Mosquitoes, Pathfinding. (So, technically, Mosquito reconnaissance and defence.) Personally I never understood how he fitted into one, but airmen were made of sterner stuff back then.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 18 2016 Ah, your lordship...a gap in your training?
HR managers are like lawyers - the good ones who are in the business primarily to protect the little guy are clever enough to maintain protective coloration. I know some of both.-- normzone, Sep 19 2016 If a drone has onboard devices for detecting a mosquito, then possibly the simplest way to kill the mosquito is for the drone to fly under it and let the airflow of its fans suck the insect into the fast-moving impeller blades.-- Vernon, Sep 19 2016 This may be a stupid question...but why are they called mosquitoes in English, as that's definitely not an English spelling. They must have had an English name in the past...-- not_morrison_rm, Sep 19 2016 // airmen were made of sterner stuff back then //
They certainly were. Some of the poor devils had to fly in Wellingtons, which may keep the wearer's feet warm and dry, but are not notably aerodynamic.-- 8th of 7, Sep 19 2016 // They must have had an English name in the past... //
Beastie?-- whatrock, Sep 19 2016 The scotch call them "mudges", although the literal translation of that is "blood-sucking hummingbird".-- 8th of 7, Sep 19 2016 Wouldn't this lead to an escalation, bringing about mosquitoes with ever-faster drone evasion capabilities and radar-scattering body angles?-- RayfordSteele, Sep 19 2016 // let the airflow of its fans suck the insect into the fast-moving impeller blades.//
That raises an interesting question. In such a scenario, what are the odds of the mosquito actually being hit by a blade, rather than just being pulled between the blades by the airflow? And, if if the mosquito were hit by the blade, would it be wrecked? Or is its low mass enough to allow it to survive the collision?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 19 2016 Now, if there were a method by which the drone could be powered by these ingestions...-- normzone, Sep 19 2016 Old English "mycg", well that's what it says on the internet, so it must be true.-- not_morrison_rm, Sep 19 2016 if you change "mosquito" to "mojito" it doesn't make as much sense, and may well not make any sense at all.-- r_kreher, Sep 21 2016 All I'm asking for is some mosquitos with friggin lasers, is that too much to ask for, really? [+]-- 21 Quest, Sep 23 2016 Hey, [Quest], there you are ! How goes the day ?-- normzone, Sep 23 2016 // is that too much to ask for, really? //
" Hey, just what you see pal ! "-- 8th of 7, Sep 24 2016 // They must have had an English name in the past... //
Bearing in mind that they're supposed to be tropical and sub-tropical, that ain't necessarily so. I imagine (with no direct evidence) that "mosquito" was adopted by English pirates heading south to prey on Spanish shipping. I'm pretty sure there are some other fragments of Spanish in the speech of the English pirates in "Treasure Island", though I may be confusing it with some other book.-- pertinax, Sep 26 2016 random, halfbakery