Is there a point to gnits?

[mliyaa]

Like they are annoying for no good reason. Might as well kill all of them and use mimikas for lura instead. 
 

would be nice if they granted some mutation of the critter etc but otherwise really no point in having any of them on the map.

[Carib94]

Mimikas are good early game for the Luras, but on a larger scale the Gnits are better for that. Besides stinging dupes and hearing all their sneezing in my base the only annoying thing for me with them is that they need to sting something to increase their population in typical mosquito fashion and also right now they are a lil buggy LOL BUT at least they dont use any resources. After experimenting the Dartles(pacu levels of reproduction) are excellent sting targets but problem with Dartles is that they are born below 0 C and they will eventually kill the Gnits due to cold unless temp control ofc. Otherwise they can be annoying and you can honestly kill them and forget them, use Mimikas, they only need dirt nothing a Pip ranches cant supply LOL.

But I dare say why not use both XD.

[Electroely]

From my understanding, the Gnits are practically free. There's no resource cost to "ranching" them - just leave a critter or two in their pen for them to torture (the critters aren't actually hurt - they just get -1 happiness) to get their reproduction rate up. It's slightly annoying when they sting a Duplicant but the downsides aren't too bad and wear off relatively quick. I couldn't get them to have the "cramped" or "overcrowded" status so I just have a ton of them in a room with a bunch of Lura plants for passive, free amber.

In comparison, it takes 50kg of dirt to make a Mimika and by having it get eaten by a Lura plant, you lose 1500kcal of food you could've gotten from toasting the mimillet it drops on death. The only other critter I think I'd try to feed them are Beetas, since they're even more free, but there's no overlap in livable temperatures for the Beeta hive and Lura plant, so it would be a bit tricky.

[Tigin]

They're best paired with either Morbs or Dartles to trigger the Stung bonus. Dartles will lay a replacement egg without feeding or grooming, and morbs are immortal. Here's an example of a design that feeds 18 exuberant Lura plants (effectively 72 normal ones) with gnits feeding on morbs (Lumbs are used for autoharvesting the amber)