Hypothetical Insect Question

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-07-04 10:34pm

Every insect on Earth dissapears. What happens?

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-07-04 10:39pm

No apple a day, that's for sure.

Kitsune · Post by **Kitsune** » 2003-07-04 10:40pm

We all die..would destroy the entire eco system on the planet...maybe we could create some artificial habitats

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-04 11:06pm

We all starve when all of the fruit trees refuse to give fruit, when the soil dies, when we choke up in rotted trees and refuse...

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-07-05 10:45am

nearly all wild angiosperms die out very quicky. Cultivated ones may survive for a while.

Bird populations plummet.

As do small mammal populations - mammalian predators turn to livestock.

soil deteriorates - decompostion slows and becomes much smellier.

and lots of other things I cna't think of right now.

Essentially. Goodbye terrestrial life, let's start again from the oceans.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-05 11:17am

Insects are extremely vital to the existance of life on this planet. I don't think we'd last a week, Wisconson would be completely uninhabitable in 3 days.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-07-05 11:29am

A shitload of keystone species wiped out in an instant? Can we say "global extinction level event"?

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-07-05 11:33am

Wisconsin is completely uninhabitable now.

Anyway, insects make up a large portion of the earth's organisms. Destroy such a large percentage and good-bye, ecosystem.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-07-05 06:06pm

Shoot...*puts away planetary level bug-zapper*

Some other day, my love.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-07-05 09:57pm

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:Shoot...*puts away planetary level bug-zapper*

Some other day, my love.

Yeah, I got one of those for mosquitoes, until I learned that they actually have a function in our ecosystem. With some modification, it now makes a great black light strobe light. Want the blueprints?

Crazy Goji · Post by **Crazy Goji** » 2003-07-05 10:30pm

Wait, what is the misquito's function in the ecosystem?

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-07-05 11:03pm

Crazy Goji wrote:Wait, what is the misquito's function in the ecosystem?

To keep vampire populations down by depleting their food supply. If it weren't for the mosquitos, we'd be overrun by the undead.

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2003-07-05 11:22pm

If all insects just disappeared at once, I think we'd have bigger problems than slow extinction. Insects account for 80% of all species, iirc, and they're more insects on earth at this moment than there have been people, ever. They outnumber us, will most likely outlive us, and most importantly in this situation, outweigh us. I would guess that the loss of so much mass would change our orbit, the earth's spin, a whole lot of things. We'd be fuct.

And mosquito's primary value? Probably as a food source for birds, bats, and other insects and spiders?

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-05 11:40pm

I've heard that they are considering whether they should kill off the species of mosquito that carries malaria. They don't think it would really negatively impact the environment, so they think it would make perfect sense to kill them off.
Now for the tetses fly.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-07-06 01:25am

The earths biosphere would collapse, and we would all die....

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-07-06 07:55pm

Crazy Goji wrote:Wait, what is the misquito's function in the ecosystem?

Dragonfly food... bird food... spider food...

It's kinda like rodents... everything eats it.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-06 10:09pm

Yes but if you killed off all the black rats, but there were still brown rats and white rats, and all the varieties of mice, plenty of food, and the remaining rats would have more food.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-07-06 11:01pm

Drewcifer wrote:and most importantly in this situation, outweigh us. I would guess that the loss of so much mass would change our orbit, the earth's spin, a whole lot of things. We'd be fuct.

Not measurably.

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2003-07-07 01:28am

Howedar wrote:Not measurably.

You're right, of course. Sometimes I think too much without thinking enough.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-07 01:33am

LadyTevar wrote:
Crazy Goji wrote:Wait, what is the misquito's function in the ecosystem?
Dragonfly food... bird food... spider food...

It's kinda like rodents... everything eats it.

Them drinking blood probably makes them damn nutritive.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-07-07 01:49am

Why does anyhting need to have a function? You makle it sound like the ecosystem was designed.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-07 03:32am

A sloth probably doesn't have a function. Other than being sloathy. But that's not very useful.