Poll: ...If You Could Drive ONE Pest to Extinction (WITHOUT ANY ECOLOGICAL RAMIFICATIONS)...

[Spoonius]

Ok. Here's the scenario.

You've been granted the power of life and death over any one "category" (not getting into scientific debates here regarding genus and species) of common household pest.
You have the ability and opportunity to exterminate the entire planetary population of whichever pest you choose, and permanently remove it from the face of the Earth, all in the blink of an eye, at no resource, manpower or monetary (OR ENVIRONMENTAL!) cost whatsoever.

Which do you choose?

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As for me...

Spoiler

Cockroaches...

I kill Huntsman spiders with my thong, I kill soldier ant nests with poison (and sand, I just love kicking it in and filling them up), I kill rats with a wooden sword I crafted, I use my sister's squash racquet to kill flies (not that she knows ), I rip up entire carpets to kill millipedes, I use my car to kill snakes (where applicable), and I once removed half-a-dozen bricks from a wall just to get at a single pregnant Redback and her web...

But cockroaches... Fuck them. Fuck them all. The disgusting little shit-trekking, disease-carrying, mush-filled bastards are everywhere! You can't even squash them without spreading eggs!...





Jesus Christ, do I hate those fucking cockroaches.

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PS: "Human" is not a valid answer. Let's all avoid trying to be witty and edgy for once.

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EDIT 1: FFS, can we all stop whining about "delicate ecosystems" and "playing God"? If I'd wanted complaints, I would have opened with a racist joke.

EDIT 2: Remember, you're only choosing one category. The categories are grouped together because I ran out of poll options. Choosing "Mosquitoes" does not make you a Bee-hater!

 

[Head Chef Dom]

Wasps, nasty horrible stingy flying things.

 

[Sticky Squid]

Moths, I hate the damn things.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Ticks. They are literally blood-sucking parasites that spread disease around. Some other "pests" are actually important to their ecosystem. Flies for instance help to get rid of corpses by having their maggots eat them up. Spiders can eat those little annoying bastards (like flys) that you would consider pests. But ticks? I doubt they do anything but suck the blood of their host.

Screw ticks to hell!

 

[MgR]

Cockroaches. Errryep, we don't have them from where we are, (atleast I've never seen one,) but I'd just like to call the world leaders together and say.

"I killed all the cockroaches, and I'm not sure where I want to stop." with a slight tone of, "GIVE ME LOTS OF MONEY."

(Mainly due to the fact that it's "stated" that cockroaches could survive nuclear blahblahblah.)

 

[lacktheknack]

None. I'm not into wrecking food webs and ecosystems.

 

[Ewyx]

I'd probably be responsible and kill off a dangerous invasive species... Mostly because they tend to mess it up for a lot of other species.

As a personal thing, probably ticks or some other disease carrying bastards like yellow fever mosquitoes. But more likely ticks, they can spread some nasty viruses those little bastards.

 

[zehydra]

Mosquitoes. They seem to be responsible for a number of human infections of other diseases, and I don't think they're exactly crucial to the ecosystem. But I could be wrong about that.

 

[Eisenfaust]

uhhh... considering removing a species like that could disrupt the entire ecosystem, etc, etc, food chain blah blah blah, none of them...

assuming you could just delete without any consequences to anything, besides that species being gone, probably cockroaches

 

[spackleninja]

Ticks. They spread disease and do nothing helpful. I doubt anything relies heavily on ticks for food so the world wouldn't miss them at all.

 

[Milo Windby]

None. I'm not into wrecking food webs and ecosystems.

This ^

Just to add, I kill some insects and such depending on the type.
However some of the things listed are not so much as pests but part of the eco system and even have a role to play. (Although, not all of them)

Bees for example... that would screw the farming industry if we killed all bees (Great job)
Certain plants require bees to pollinate them and help them to create the fruits and vegetables we eat.

and stray cats? Well, being a cat lover and all...

 

[Dorian]

So what exactly gives me the god-given right to destroy millions, of not billions of lives just because I said so?

Followed immediately by such a shitstorm of ecological collapses to further scar the planet of the impact that mankind has had on it?

Every creature has a purpose in its own realm. If it didn't, it wouldn't need humans to exist for it to go extinct.

EDIT: You do realize the bullshit you're creating by saying no ecological fuckups will happen?

What happens to cows when the grass dies? They eat the fucking dirt? No, they starve to death.
What happens to the oceans when sharks disappear? You'd best enjoy swimming in corpses, because there'll be so many fish they can't get enough food for each other.
What of polar bears when the seals die out? Go fucking vegan?
What of birds of prey without mice and rats?
Flowers and trees without bees?
Flies without spiders?
Corpses without fly maggots?

Take out a single piece in an ecological house of cards, and everything else will fall because of that one fucking mistake.

 

[rekabdarb]

Politicians. those are the worst pests

 

[BoogieManFL]

Ticks or fleas.

 

[rb26dett]

XBox live verbaly abusive pre pubescent FPS players

 

[linwolf]

None. At a personal level I find almost all animals interesting, and beside that wrecking the ecosystems because of a small irritations would be pretty selfish.

 

[massaffect123]

Ticks. They spread disease and do nothing helpful. I doubt anything relies heavily on ticks for food so the world wouldn't miss them at all.

This. I hate them with a passion. Bastards gave me lyme disease. Horrible experience.

 

[Super Toast]

Politicians. those are the worst pests

Good work not reading the OP like that.

OT: Flies. They become unbearable during the Summer.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Religious extremists/anti-theist extremists/extremists in general. The pests you listed serve important purposes in the web of life, while the ones I listed serve only to spew vitriol at best, or to kill each other and innocent bystanders at worst. I'd rather not actually kill any of them, though, so maybe I should twist the wish and use it to kill the idea of extremism, rather than the extremists themselves...