What would happen if we killed all mosquitoes?
Mosquitoes are some of the most frustrating insects that exist. A wonderful summer night’s campfire fun can quickly be spoiled by the familiar sting and throbbing of yet another mosquito bite.
These things are a menace. Some even seem to care less that you just put on a fresh layer of bug spray. I’ve personally watched in amazement as mosquitoes hover around my arm after I just sprayed some bug spray. They sure don’t like the bug-spray, but they still are thirsting for some fresh human blood.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just eliminate all mosquitoes? It would certainly make summer nights, camping, and hiking a lot more enjoyable.
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Beyond the Simple Annoyance
Beyond the simple annoyance, eliminating all mosquitoes from planet Earth could save potentially a million people per year. According to mosquito.org and the American Mosquito Control Organization, mosquitoes kill about a million people per year worldwide.
It’s not the mosquito bites that get you- it’s what the mosquitoes can carry that make them so dangerous.
Mosquitoes can transmit several diseases and even help parasites infect animals! Some of the more well-known diseases that are transmitted via mosquito bites include malaria and dengue.
This is particularly dangerous in rural areas with limited access to healthcare and treatment.
To make matters worse, something like a malaria outbreak can grow quickly because mosquitoes can take infected human blood from a sick person and then deliver malaria to a healthy person.
This is especially dangerous in hot, humid countries still developing their healthcare infrastructure. When one person gets sick and bit, this can be transmitted to several other people.
It’s because of this issue that mosquitoes are considered one of the deadliest creatures for humans on planet Earth. While their bites themselves are typically far from life threatening for the vast majority of people, it’s in less developed regions where they accelerate the spread of disease.
What if we eliminated all mosquitoes?
You don’t have to get infected with a deadly disease to want these creatures gone. All it takes is a couple of mosquitoes to sneak into your home to cause enough frustration and lost sleep as you wake up at 3am with a few itchy red bumps realizing you have been feasted on.
Killing one mosquito at a time is no easy feat when they are actively avoiding you. These buggers seem capable of dodging even the fastest of swipes at times.
Even if you’re a mosquito-swatting master, it can be exhausting ridding your home of but even a half dozen mosquitoes that snuck in while the door was open for a few brief seconds.
Eliminating all mosquitoes on Earth would be no easy feat, but it’s not something that is completely impossible.
Humans have put several species to rest, though many of those cases were not intentional by humanity as a whole; instead it was individuals or groups of humans hunting various animals, or human activities messing with an animal’s ecosystem.
Intentional extinction is easy possible for some types of animals, such as large mammals that we can easily identify and hunt.
How would we get rid of mosquitoes? Even if everyone went fly-swatting every Saturday for 8 hours, mosquito populations would likely quickly replenish. There are too many food and water sources available for them, and their small size allows just a few to constantly be escaping and repopulating.
Reality aside, let’s suppose that we could press a single button to delete all mosquitoes from existence. As much as you’d want to, should you delete all mosquitoes?
The Greater Impact
The first week would be awesome… For humans. From the simple annoyance of bug bites at the campfire to those living in developing, rural areas, the immediate impact of “no more mosquitoes” would be a huge relief around the world.
While humanity celebrates the great achievement of deleting all mosquitoes overnight, other creatures would be struggling greatly.
Mosquitoes are a major food source for many types of animals. Mosquitoes are hunted by dragonflies, fish, various birds, bats, frogs, and more! Some creatures eat mosquitoes, but others such as fish prey on mosquito larvae.
Very suddenly overnight all of these creatures would have a major food source removed. Imagine having no more lunch (and potentially dinner too) overnight! It would be a disaster!
All of these animals would then begin to suffer, and potentially have their populations reduced as their food source has been diminished.
Mosquitoes are also pollinators, transferring pollen from flower to flower. This is yet another area of the ecosystem that would be impacted by their disappearance.
Would It Really Be That Bad?
All this said, would it really be that bad? Would the consequences come back to haunt humanity, creating an irreversible series of effects in the ecosystem that end up harming humanity equally or worse than if we had just accepted the annoyance and dangers of mosquitoes?
No one can say for certain. While there would definitely be an impact in the ecosystem, it’s hard to predict how this would create a chain of effects.
It’s possible that the ecosystem would adjust and in the end everything would be okay. Perhaps there would be a net positive in the world, with humans being annoyed less and the transmission of various diseases being less likely.
On the other hand, it’s possible that this could create a massive chain of effects which ends up raising human food prices, or setting the cards in place for an even worse creature to take over as one of Earth’s most annoying pests to humans (let us know if you agree that they are one of the more annoying pests out there).
At the end of the day this probably isn’t something we have to be too concerned about. It would be VERY hard to create something that could eliminate all mosquitoes without directly damaging other insects or creatures as well.
Pests in the Home
While we can’t guarantee a pest-free world when out exploring nature, we can guarantee that your home is pest-free.
Wildlife x Team specializes in humane wildlife and pest removal for your home, business, or property.
If you think that you have a wildlife or pest infestation problem, give us a call at 855-WILDLIFE or visit www.wildlifexteam.com for more information.
Thanks and have a great day!
-Wildlife x Team International