Why do we not simply eradicate mosquitos? What would be the negative consequences?
In: 4690
Biologist here
There are literally thousands (more than three thousand!) species of mosquitoes in the world. Many of those do not ever bite people. Wiping out all of them would be pointless and destructive.
On the other hand, many of the worst mosquito species from a human perspective are actually invasive species that humans have accidentally spread around the world. A few others are human-specialists and don’t really engage much with ecosystems that aren’t dominated by humans (villages, cities, farms).
Wiping out _these_ species would likely not have many negative impacts on broader ecosystems. Might even be helpful by removing competition for native species.
_However_, historically at least, attempting to eliminate mosquitoes has been hugely damaging to the environment. Not so much because of the lack of mosquitoes themselves, but because eradicating mosquitoes was done by draining wetlands (vital habitats for many species, and important for cleaning and controlling water) and using pesticides (which killed many other species as well).
More recently there are some promising new genetic approaches that can be targeted at a single mosquito species. I have hopes that these may bring us some success in wiping out invasive mosquito species in at least some locations.
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