That is a cool idea. Like the mouse that takes the thorn out of the lion's foot: we could cure mosquitos of what ails them (even if they don't know it ails them, as they are carriers - but they die more so for being that), and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity.
I take it you have never spent any time outside where there's lots of them. If you go out without protection, they'll mercilessly sting every bit of exposed skin. Depending on your genes and the mosquitoes', the stings can swell heavily. Some of them sting so deep that you cannot get rid of the itching and inflammation with a heat pen.
As soon as you stand still, you'll find yourself in thick cloud of the bastards within 20 seconds. If you use repellent (picaridine does work to keep them from stining but isn't exactly healthy), they will still buzz around you and slowly drive you mad. If you use netting, some get through the inevitable gaps and some will obviously get inside your tent/car/house when you open them.
The sound of thousands of them flying around you just triggers some primal revulsion. Around sundown, their activity gets so intense that it literally sounds like a drone, if they're a large variety it even sounds a bit like a distant hornet swarm.
All in all, I don't think we can become friends. But at least they're more pleasant than black flies and deer flies.
There are few things that set me off like hearing that telltale Doppler effect buzz whizz by my ear. Not as bad as those flies you mention for sure but still awful.
I wonder if the unintended consequences would be tame enough to justify using a gene drive to breed human predation out of mosquitos.
If I could get a vaccine or some other treatment that got my body to not itch from their saliva, or even to just itch for a more limited amount of time, I could handle the rest (deadly disease excepted).
Sure, they're annoying, but I don't actually care about them sucking my blood that much. I have plenty of the stuff, they only take a tiny amount, and they feed birds and bats with it.
Having to spend hours afterward physically uncomfortable certainly tempers my magnanimity.
Have you ever considered an electrified paddle? I’d recommend the kind without a guard, just bare wires… the SNAP! when you contact a mosquito is both humane (instantaneous explosion!) and extremely satisfying, as these things go…
Not useful for meaningful control in the kind of swarm situation you describe, but cathartic! And useful for the stragglers who sneak into your shelter behind you…
> and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity
i'd rather not have them suck my blood even if there is no disease risk
> and the mosquito could become the friend of humanity.
This is impossible.
One night in the northwoods of Minnesota will quickly and completely disabuse you of this fantastical notion. I would make all mosquitoes extinct at great personal cost, if there was a way to do it. Being disease vectors doesn't even have much to do with it. They are the most profoundly irritating bug, with zero redeeming qualities. They make large swathes of country difficult to exist in during dawn and dusk. I cannot express in words the depths of my hate for mosquitoes.
Maybe they are feeding on your hatred? I don’t get a bad itch from them. Long sleeves keep them away. A broad brim hat with gauze to shoulders keeps them off your face. The noise doesn’t bug me. “Tis the sound of dusk”