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I recall hearing when I was younger that mosquitoes were an outlier in the natural world. With most species, the balance of any food web would be pretty thoroug
by WaxProlix 9y ago
I recall hearing when I was younger that mosquitoes were an outlier in the natural world. With most species, the balance of any food web would be pretty thoroughly disrupted by a major culling. As I heard it, this isn't the case for mosquitoes - if you could press a button and kill them all tomorrow, most ecosystems would be largely unimpacted.
Am I just making this up/misremembering it?
Edit: found a few sources.
Pro-mosquitocide:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoes-zika-virus-environment-science-animals/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160207-mosquitoes...
Anti-mosquitocide:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if-every-mosquito-on-earth-went-extinct-tomorrow-1646840383 http://io9.gizmodo.com/what-if-every-mosquito-on-earth-went-...
- takeda 9y agoI can only confirm that I heard that as well, but have no idea how true it is.
- soperj 9y agoMosquitoes are also pollinators. I believe orchids are one flower that is mostly pollinated by mosquitoes.
- teddyg1 9y agoIn this case, the particular species that carries Zika (aedes aegypti) does not pollinate any plant species in any meaningful way.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoI believe I recall reading that if we were to eliminate only the disease carry mosquitoes, those responsible for transmitting maleria, dengue fever, Ross river virus) there ought not be a problem in the ecological web of life as other mosquitoes would fill the void.
- SubiculumCode 9y agoYes. Most mosquito species do not actually bite.
- CydeWeys 9y agoThey don't feed on people, or they don't feed in general? If the latter, how do they even survive? They eat in their larval form but then not as adults?
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoThe Wikipedia article has more detail: Typically, both male and female mosquitoes feed on nectar and plant juices, but in many species the mouthparts of the females are adapted for piercing the skin of animal hosts and sucking their blood as ectoparasites. In many species, the female needs to obtain nutrients from a blood meal before it can produce eggs, whereas in many other species, it can produce more eggs after a blood meal. A mosquito has a variety of ways of finding its prey, including chemical, visual, and heat sensors.[36] Both plant materials and blood are useful sources of energy in the form of sugars, and blood also supplies more concentrated nutrients, such as lipids, but the most important function of blood meals is to obtain proteins as materials for egg production.[1] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Feeding_by_adults https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito#Feeding_by_adults
- fatmotherpucker 9y agoLet's pick out each mosquito one by one to check which one we should kill or release then.
- Retric 9y agoThey are a food source, but generally not a critical one.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoI did a bit of research a while back, and it seemed to agree. Mosquitoes don't keep any other species in check (since their victims rarely die), and they aren't a primary food source for anything; bats will snap them up all night long, but they're still a minority of the stomach contents because they're so small. They are pollinators--I hadn't known that--but, again, they're not primary pollinators for anything, not like bees. I don't recall reading anything specific about the larvae's importance in aquatic biomes, though, so the anti-mosquitocide guy may have a point.
- stephengillie 9y agoMaybe they keep bats too busy to eat a more nutritious prey animal, and keep the population from expanding though malnourishment? Similar to the diet of a panda bear, though they unfortunately have no higher-caloric alternative.
- allendoerfer 9y agoI think mammals are smart enough to eat the food with the most nutritions per effort.
- vkrm 9y agoPandas and Koalas have extremely poor diets in terms of nutrition. It's likely there are other examples as well.
- red75prime 9y agoLooks like evolutionary dead end.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- randyrand 9y agoI believe this is the case for most organisms. Even humans are included. Only a relative few would cause wide spread extinction.
- tren 9y agoI've heard that certain places have remained naturally pristine because mosquitoes have prevented humans from establishing there. I think there is something to this line of thinking.
- tgjsrkghruksd 9y agoThese tend to be swampy wetlands, and people have drained and developed swamps all the time for hundreds of years.
- hyperbovine 9y ago... in part because they hate all the bugs.
- acheron 9y agoYour "pro" articles: Nature, and National Geographic. Your "anti" article: Gawker. Yeah, I think we're safe.
- joegosse 9y agoWhile unlikely a factor in this case, I wouldn't be so quick to trust National Geographic as it is a for-profit company owned by 21st Century Fox (of Fox News fame). Its credibility shouldn't be categorized on equal footing as Nature. https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/9/9296815/national-geographic-magazine-is-now-a-for-profit-business-fox https://www.theverge.com/2015/9/9/9296815/national-geographi...
- mattkrause 9y agoIt's important to note that the magazine is owned (partially) by Fox, but the National Geographic Society is still its own thing.