Why do we not simply eradicate mosquitos? What would be the negative consequences?
In: 4690
So people are saying “the ecosystem is delicate,” and that’s true, but mosquitos are kind of a special case with some fun extra history and caveats.
America (and many other places) gave mosquito eradication a solid attempt in the middle of the 1900s. Malaria was a regular problem in the States before that, and they used a compound called DDT to to kill enough mosquitos that the disease was basically scoured from the country. DDT has a pretty famous history of being a bit of an ecological^1 nightmare. It’s not great for people (if I recall, it causes ~~cancer~~ pregnancy problems), and it was very bad for birds (specifically it weakens their eggs).
Those mosquitos are still around in America, but because they’re mostly nocturnal, the mosquitos you probably know (and hate) are a different kind – tiger mosquitos, a diurnal species from Asia – which were introduced accidentally in the 80s from cargo ships.
So while the ecosystem is indeed delicate and I’m not enough of a ecologist to say with any certainty, I don’t think mother nature would lose any sleep over the death of invasive tiger mosquitos. The bigger issue, I’d bet, is that the tools we have for eradicating them tend to kill *other* stuff, too.
^(1): More than one person has suggested the ecological and human health effects of DDT might have been over-reported. I haven’t looked into that, so don’t quote me as an expert on the matter.
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