[ak217]

So you don't have a source?

I went to grad school with a lot of ecologists (not an ecologist myself). I've seen countless presentations about anthropogenic threats to all kinds of ecosystems. I've never seen anything that included mosquitoes as anything but a disease vector, and I've heard numerous opinions saying that mosquitoes are the one class of animal whose absence would not be noticed by the ecosystem. To back that claim up, I have the micro-review in Nature that I linked above. You can find more sources by following the citation web from it.

Gene drives are certainly a powerful and dangerous technology. But if you want to argue against using a gene drive on mosquitoes from a scientific standpoint, you need to present scientific evidence.

[meagain20000]

I wonder if we could employ similar technology for lice, bed bugs and roaches. Would be awesome not to have to deal with those pests.

[pvaldes]

> I've never seen anything that included mosquitoes as anything but a disease vector,

There are entire branches of ecology studying (among other things) the role of mosquitoes in ecosystems. Limnology for example.

> I've heard numerous opinions saying that mosquitoes are the one class of animal whose absence would not be noticed by the ecosystem

Define "numerous"

I can't understand how somebody could claim that nothing will occur if we wipe an entire "class" of animals comprising more than 3000 species and that are linked with almost all in freshwater ecosystems in its quadruple role of prey, predator, pollinisator and vector. Hundred of species of vertebrates of economic interest to man depend on them, probably.