Considering all the damage we do to eco systems and how little concern many governments have for the environment how come we are so concerned about potential consequences of fighting mosquitoes with genetically modified bacteria and similiar strategies?
Only a few species are dangerous to humans and none of them are keystone species in their ecosystems so why not just erradicate them?
In: Biology
Other people answering your question have failed to speak to how important mosquitoes are to the ecology. Birds eat mosquitoes. Other larger animals than mosquitoes prey upon those mosquitoes. Eliminating mosquitoes is not entirely benign.
We had this problem in the last century with DDT. We sprayed for insects with this pesticide, and we found that it killed off animals higher in the food chain.
So even if it’s possible to eliminate mosquitoes or change them, there are secondary, unintentional effects to be concerned with.
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