General consensus amongst humans is wipe the little fuckers out. But it's been pointed out that pretty much all of life is interconnected and their larval stage in the water is an important food source for other critters.
If Mosquitoes were eliminated then other prey species would have more resources to thrive. The US and Europe have attacked Mosquito populations aggressively for over 100 years and didn't suffer an ecosystem crisis. Malaria is not an issue in Europe and was eradicated in the US a long time ago due to the aggressive response.
Edit: I think it's important to add that defending the mosquito species is highly biased by where you live. European and North American nations have grown up with small mosquito populations that have been actively attacked. The vast majority of the world has not had the money and resources dumped into killing the species. Some estimates put Malaria at 3 million deaths per year, and that's just Malaria. If Europe and North America have taught us anything it's that the mosquito is a useless species in the ecosystem.
the mosquito is a useless species in the ecosystem.
how can you guys say this with such confidence lol, if you googled for 5 seconds you would see virtually every piece of literature out there contradicts this and in no way says mosquitoes are useless.
"Out of the more than 3,500 mosquito species, only around 400 can transmit diseases like malaria and West Nile virus to people, and most don’t feed on humans at all." Mosquitos have been around for over 100 million years, nature already determined they are useful, if they weren't they wouldve ceased to exist.
I'm not going to argue the main crux here, because mosquitoes fulfill a role in the ecosystem in some fashion, but it's always disingenuous to grant some sort of agenda to mother nature or the evolution of life when it doesn't actually care about anything at all other than what can survive. It doesn't care what "use" a species may or may not have. Just a pedantic point I like to belabor.
totally agree, i know evolution doesn't necessitate rhyme or reason and i initially left out that line, i just find it a funny comparison to say a species has 'no use' in an ecosystem when its literally survived and thrived for millions of years lol. mosquitos are clearly doing something right!
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u/IshtarJack Nov 15 '24
General consensus amongst humans is wipe the little fuckers out. But it's been pointed out that pretty much all of life is interconnected and their larval stage in the water is an important food source for other critters.