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On Earth, there is one insect that we hate the most. They disturb our tranquility, suck our blood, and spread vicious diseases, killing millions of people every year. They are mosquitoes.

Many people would like to see mosquitoes become extinct. But mosquitoes are also part of the ecosystem. If we eliminate them all, will there be adverse consequences for nature?

If there is less food, it will be a lot

Many animals prey on mosquitoes, such as frogs, geckos, bats, etc. There are also professional "mosquito catchers" - mosquito fish, which can eat thousands of blood-sucking mosquito larvae a day.

But mosquitoes are not their only food source. In addition to mosquitoes, frogs also have more than 120 kinds of insects that can be used as food; geckos also prey on moths, flies, ants and other insects; mosquitoes account for less than 2% of bats’ food. ; In addition to eating mosquitoes, mosquitofish also eat beetles, mites and other plankton. Therefore, the disappearance of harmful mosquitoes is not enough to lead to the extinction of predators. They will eventually find other food to replace mosquitoes and fill their stomachs.

If there is too much pollination, then one person will not have too many pollinations.

In fact, in addition to sucking blood, harmful mosquitoes also act as nature's "pollinators", pollinating plants by collecting nectar. However, it is only a secondary pollinator. Most plants in nature are pollinated by insects such as bees and butterflies.



There is a special case in the Arctic tundra. The blunt-leaf orchids in this area mainly rely on female Aedes mosquitoes for pollination. However, even if all Aedes mosquitoes disappear, obtuse orchids can still rely on some moths for pollination and will not be completely extinct; even if it becomes extinct, this species that only lives in cold areas will have little impact on the entire ecosystem.

Most mosquitoes don't deserve death

In fact, there are currently more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes in the world, of which less than 6% are blood-sucking and disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Most mosquitoes are vegetarians. They mainly feed on nectar, grass juice and fruit juice in the adult stage, and never suck blood. The larvae mostly feed on microorganisms or algae. They live in the water and will surface and fly when they grow up. Walk.

Moreover, the larvae of some mosquitoes specialize in feeding on the larvae of blood-sucking mosquitoes, such as the giant mosquito, which is 2 to 3 times larger than ordinary mosquitoes. Its larvae feed on the larvae of Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit diseases such as yellow fever and dengue fever. the culprit. So, not all mosquitoes deserve death, we only need to eliminate the few that are harmful to humans, such as Aedes, Anopheles and Culex.

If harmful mosquitoes were to be eradicated, would that affect the entire ecosystem?

Genes kill mosquitoes invisible

Since it doesn’t have a big impact on the ecosystem, how do we get rid of these mosquitoes? Spraying large areas of the world with pesticides? Drive mosquitoes into a forest and set them on fire? Of course not, wrong methods of killing mosquitoes will also cause harm to nature.

So how can we eliminate harmful mosquitoes without damaging the environment or harming innocent people? Scientists implant sterility or lethal genes into male mosquitoes. When female mosquitoes mate with these male mosquitoes, they will produce larvae that are stillborn or die very early. If things go on like this, there will be fewer and fewer mosquitoes. These technologies have been used in the United States, South America and other places, which have significantly reduced the Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever, and have not caused any adverse effects so far.

It seems that, at least based on current human understanding of nature, extermination of harmful mosquitoes will have no obvious impact on the ecological chain. I hope scientists will complete this feat as soon as possible, so that we no longer have to worry about mosquitoes in the summer.