Playing God: Should We Eliminate All Mosquitoes?
I think most people, if not all, share a very intense hatred towards a particular species of insect. I am talking about mosquitos. The highly annoying, blood sucking, disease spreading menace that people from all around the world absolutely hate. Well, except maybe for Iceland because they don’t have mosquitoes there.
I like to call these mosquitos ‘flying syringes’ that will just suck out your blood at any chance they get and leave behind an itchy mark that you can’t help but itch! I personally am allergic to mosquitoes on a psychological level. I start feeling uncomfortable at the sight of even one.
That is why I have often pondered about what would happen if all the mosquitoes in the world were to be eliminated. I know it’s kind of a dark thought but what I can say. I just despise them! If nature ever made a mistake, I would say this was it.
This led me to researching more on the topic. There are important considerations to be made as to their importance in an ecosystem and how their absence would affect the ecology of the world. Also, even if their absence wouldn’t hurt the environment, can we play god or rather, should we?
Why We Shouldn’t
Before we consider any specicide, (yes, we have a word for it, which means the deliberate extinction of an entire species), we should consider the various factors involved.
First things first, not all mosquitoes are bad. There are roughly 3500 known species of mosquitoes and out of these, only about 100 bite humans. The rest are happy with nectar from flowers. So, there is no point eliminating all the known species of mosquito.
Every organism has it’s own place in an ecosystem and so does mosquito. They are food for birds, frogs, bats, fish that eat their larvae, and other animals. We still don’t understand what risks will their elimination pose to the ecology.
One more part of the ecological equation is that due to mosquitoes about half a million to a million people die every year. Without these mosquitoes, it would mean that those lives are saved but from an ecological perspective, it also means more pressure on the environment because we are just another species for nature.
Lastly, there is the ethical question too. Even if we some day have the power to commit a specicide, should we really exercise that power? Is it ethical to play god and just eliminate an entire species? This is one of those questions which has different answers depending on whom you ask.
Why We Should
The first and foremost thing to discuss here is all the human lives mosquitoes take every year. As I mentioned above, about half a million to a million people are killed every year because of all the diseases that mosquitoes transmit. Diseases like yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria are all transmitted by mosquitoes and eliminating them will put a stop to all of that.
They are not called the deadliest animals for human beings for no reason. They kill more people than lions, tigers, sharks, bears or any other predators known to us. They have been around since the times of dinosaurs and are still around, ever a menace.
Also, due to this, the world invests billions of dollars to combat these diseases. In fact the Gates Foundation has spent upwards of $2 billion to fight malaria. All this money can be saved if we just erase the root problem.
As I said above, we do not know how their absence will affect the environment but a report in Nature magazine stated that it is highly likely that other species of insects will fill their place in the ecosystem. Many scientists in the world seem to agree.
Lastly, though it may seem shallow, but their presence is just plain irritating with them buzzing around in our ears, making life hell during sleep at night and causing itchy bites.
How Do We End Them?
An aircraft spraying chemicals for mosquito control
There are various methods that have been suggested to make them extinct. One method suggests to spray a formula of bacteria over large breeding grounds and habitats of mosquitoes. They will eat these bacteria which will only kill them by destroying the lining of their guts. If done continuously over a number of years, it could ensure their extinction.
One other very popular method that is suggested is that of genetic modification. As we know, our ability to modify genes is really getting advanced now and we are equipped with more capabilities than ever before.
So, under this method, male mosquitoes are genetically modified so that all their offsprings die off in their larval stage. There has been actual studies done in Brazin testing the effects of this method and researchers noted an 80% drop in the number of Aedes aegypti, one of the disease causing mosquitoes.
In the future, we may have many other effective and efficient methods to deal with this problem. One cool idea someone mentioned to me was mini drones in our homes, constantly looking for mosquitoes and zapping them with lasers, keeping us safe at all times.
All images taken from Pixabay.
I don't think aircraft spraying will kill them off, if I'm not wrong Grand Cayman has something like this and it does work but just for containing not eliminating. I used to work at a port in Northern Honduras that is infested with mosquitoes and sand flies, they practically drove you crazy, well the US Army set up a camp there and once a high ranking officer got there felt the mosquitoes and said tomorrow we're gonna fix this once and for all. The next day several airplanes sprayed the whole zone and for two days zero mosquitoes, on the third day they were back in force.
What I am saying is these insects can be controlled but will be very difficult to eradicate, same as cockroaches.
Yes, they cannot be eradicated only by spraying. That's why the genetic means ;)
For some reason I have never been bitten by one.
Probably they respect awesomeness.
haha! Might be ;)
Because you are protected by the dark side of the force!!
And some armor... and awesomeness.
We don't yet know why we need them. We should not be hasty in eliminating anything that is so successful. We should seek to understand it first.
Yes, I agree. We should make decisions after only fully understanding the situation. Right now, many scientists believe that they will be replaced by other organisms if eradicated.
If we get rid of those "scientists" I'm sure they would be replaced by other organisms.
When an imbalance, like the disappearance of mosquitoes, is created, something worse could come about. There are examples of this already. For instance, the overuse of glyphosate and the sharp increase in the prevalence of things like Goss' wilt in corn, along with the increase in a new disease, that was never a problem before, call SDS or sudden death syndrome, caused by fusarium solani, a fungus that destroys crops and causes spontaneous abortion and death in food animals.
Ideas like this are usually about corporate profit, and control by regulatory capture. There are already in existence methods of dealing with infectious disease that do not require the extinction of 100 species of insects that may serve many yet unknown functions in the ecosphere.
Very informative post on mosquitoes.
Thank you :) Cool gif!
Great post. Here in Minnesota, we often joke that the mosquitoe is the state bird :)
Same with Alaska hahaha
thank you :) Yeah, they are everywhere.....everywhere I tell you!!!! :D
For every actions, there's a reaction. Just take that into consideration. I would say let nature run its course, but we are part of nature.
True! And that is one of the major reasons why we haven't completely eradicated them. No one wants to make mistakes that cannot be reversed.
Humans never learn from their mistakes. Most of what humans do is instinctive - we're meaty animals with written text .
perfect way to put it! :)
The most deadly animal in the world is the mosquito. It might seem impossible that something so miniscule can kill so many people, but it's true. According to the World Health Organization, mosquito bites result in the deaths of more than 1 million people every year. The majority of these deaths are due to malaria.
Exactly! I mentioned these in the article too. It is no doubt the deadliest animal in the world.
Yes we should! Fuck em
That's my first reaction when I get bitten by one too!
The rest of my post is going to come off strong in favor of mosquitoes, so let me preface with: every human death is a tragedy. Most deaths from mosquitoes, though, can be prevented with cheap mosquito nets. Givewell.org rates the Against Malaria Foundation as the top-rated anti-malarial charity to donate to: https://www.againstmalaria.com/default.aspx.
And this is why we shouldn't eliminate them, even if we can safely. Who knows what would happen to their predators? The ecosystem isn't a unidirectional chain, it's a web, and we aren't even close to understanding how every animal species impacts the environment and by extension, impacts us.
Indeed. And we all know how terrible spraying for mosquitoes is. The pesticides contaminate water sources and hurt endemic amphibian and insect populations. Indeed, bees are being decimated because of mosquito spraying. And we still don't know what effects the pesticides in the water supply have on humans. They are perhaps carcinogenic, although maybe not at low enough concentrations.
Great post! I'm happy whenever people discuss nature and our mass modifications of it!
Yes, that's one of the major reasons why a global effort hasn't been carried out to wipe them off. But, many researchers are now saying that their absence won't be felt in the ecology as other organisms will replace them. (But alas, they can't be sure).
As for spraying, that works only to 'control' the population of mosquitoes and not eradicate them. I hope we can do away with these pesticides for the reasons you mentioned. We need them bees.
I have a friend who is an entomologist who studies bees, so I know a tiny bit about how important they are to us and the ecosystem! Long live the bees.
Yep, isn't there a saying that if bees disappeared, our days would be numbered too? I haven't researched on it, just heard about it.
Didn't realise there are non-human biting ones. Thanks for the info
Most are non-human biting ones. Only a handful bite humans. Wish we could just erase these ones.
Hands up and agree totally.