Will the ecosystem collapse if all mosquitoes become extinct?

Recently, a deputy to the National People's Congress proposed the total elimination of mosquitoes, this news has sparked a lot of discussions. Mosquitoes are very diverse, and some of them not only suck blood and give big bites, but the scary thing is that they can also carry many bacteria and viruses that spread a variety of crippling and highly fatal diseases by biting humans, such as yellow fever, malaria, dengue fever, Zika, encephalitis B, satyriasis and so on.

It can be said that on earth, there is currently no animal from mosquitoes to humaneness dangerous, the World Health Organization statistics show that more than 700,000 people around the world each year died from mosquito-borne diseases. Therefore, humans have been trying to find ways to control the number of mosquitoes or to eliminate them too to nip the relevant infectious diseases in the bud.

So, can humans really achieve the complete elimination of mosquitoes? What would happen if the world was free of mosquitoes?

First of all, let's do a brief understanding of abhorrent mosquitoes.

Not all mosquitoes are "vampires"

Mosquito is a family of insects under the order Dipterous, the distribution is very wide, except for Antarctica, almost every continent has a mosquito distribution. Thermos mosquito has a total of three subfamilies, respectively, the subfamily of giant mosquitoes, Anopheles subfamily, Cullen subfamily, a wide range of species, there are currently about 3,600 species around the world. But not all mosquitoes are "vampires", only one or two hundred of them will bite people to suck blood, and there are about 80 kinds of these will spread disease. Will bite this part of the blood-sucking mosquitoes mainly include Andes, Cullen, and Anopheles 3 genera of mosquito species, these 3 types of mosquito species more than half.

And mosquito populations only female mosquitoes will suck blood, which is because they only have to rely on blood, to make the ovaries develop and reproduce offspring; male mosquitoes do not suck blood, do not bite, but to plant sap for food, some will also suck nectar. So, only female mosquitoes can spread disease, and different kinds of mosquitoes can spread different diseases.

The role of mosquitoes in nature

The role of mosquitoes in nature is not to be underestimated, mainly including 3 major roles: pollinators, decomposes, and food sources for animals.

A part of the mosquito in sucking the sap of flowers will play a role in the spread of pollen, which has a certain help to the growth and reproduction of plants.

The larvae of mosquitoes, tsetse, live in water, where they feed mainly on plankton, microorganisms, and dead plant and animal bodies. In other words, tsetse act as decomposes in nature. They can decompose some animal carcasses, decaying leaves, plant residues, and feces in the ecosystem into simple inorganic substances, and then allow these inorganic substances to be returned to the ecosystem for better recycling by plants.

Mosquitoes are small, but the populations are extremely large, from this point it is not difficult to find, they are the existence of the bottom of the food chain creatures, nature feeds on its many animals, including birds in sparrows, swallows, many kinds of insects such as dragonflies, frogs, lizards, geckos, bats and fish in the water and so on, these animals like to use mosquitoes as food, they consume a large number of mosquitoes every day.

For example, geckos can eat dozens of mosquitoes a day, while a bat a night can generally eat 3000 mosquitoes. Some mosquito larvae tsetse are developed in water, and they are also a major food source for some aquatic insects, insect larvae such as dragonfly larvae, and many fish and tadpoles, among other animals. There are several hundred species of fish that feed on mosquitoes and their larvae. A mosquito-eating fish can devour up to 500 mosquitoes a day.

What would be the impact of eliminating mosquitoes

So, if mosquitoes were to be exterminated, what would be the impact on the ecosystem? Will the animals that feed on mosquitoes starve to death?

Mosquitoes in the ecological chain are, not an irreplaceable link.

Scientific research has found that the extinction of a mosquito caused by a break in the ecological chain will be easily connected to other insect species. Many animals that feed on mosquitoes do not have to eat mosquitoes, they will also prey on other insects. The disappearance of mosquitoes will be easily replaced by other insects, so the lack of mosquitoes, does not directly affect the survival of frogs, spiders, geckos, and other animals (provided that the number of other insects is large enough), and in the diet of bats, mosquitoes account for less than 2%.

However, in the entire ecosystem, the disappearance of mosquitoes will still hurt some birds and fish that use mosquitoes as their main food source, reducing the populations of these two species to some extent.

If mosquitoes were to disappear completely, there would be hundreds of species of mosquito-eating fish that would also have to readjust their recipes to survive. At the same time, the extinction of mosquitoes would lead to a reduction in the number of insects that feed on mosquitoes, and the number of fish that feed on these insects would also be reduced or face extinction, which in turn could have an impact on the upstream and downstream of the food chain and the ecosystem.

In addition, mosquitoes also provide a large amount of food for migrating birds, and if mosquitoes become extinct, it will be difficult for these birds to carry out their migratory activities.

For the pollinator role of mosquitoes, no plant is dependent on mosquitoes alone to spread pollen, when the mosquitoes become extinct, there are bees, butterflies, and other important pollinators to complete the work of pollination, and thus will not be because of the disappearance of mosquitoes lead to some plants can not breed properly.

As for the recomposed role of tsetse, there are numerous microorganisms in the water, and there can be other microorganisms to take over.

If humans can eliminate only that small group of mosquitoes that bite humans through technology, it will not have a serious impact on the ecosystem and food chain.

Can humans eliminate mosquitoes?

Experts say: complete elimination is not realistic!

You know, mosquitoes have survived on Earth for about 170 million years, their evolutionary history is longer than human beings, experienced countless catastrophes, but still able to adapt to the environment to survive to this day, and get a good survival, it is clear that their adaptability, self-preservation ability is much stronger, and is not good to deal with.

And mosquito reproduction speed is amazing, the general mosquitoes, from eggs to grow to bite mosquitoes only about half a month, and then less than a week to lay eggs. And a female mosquito can lay several batches of eggs in a lifetime, and each time the eggs can reach hundreds.

Simply by manual extermination or spraying insecticide methods to eliminate large areas, or there will be a steady stream of newborn mosquitoes. And can kill the mosquito agent is also easy to accidentally kill other species, plus mosquitoes are also more likely to produce resistance, the results are not ideal.

At present, it seems to be quite difficult to get rid of all the mosquitoes, or completely. But we can try to reduce the population density of mosquitoes, to reduce the number of mosquitoes to some extent. The National Health Commission has also responded by emphasizing the importance of "reducing mosquito density levels" to reduce the outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases.

Humans around the world are also constantly seeking and trying various methods of mosquito control. For example, the United States uses genetic means to eliminate mosquitoes, breeding a large number of genetically modified male mosquitoes, and they are released one after another, so that they mate with female mosquitoes in the wild, so that the next generation of mosquitoes lose the ability to reproduce, so that in the generations of reproduction, gradually control the number of mosquito populations in the wild.

But the mosquito program is still controversial, people will be worried about these gene-edited mosquitoes out of the mutation, making the role of antithetically modified mosquitoes fail or become more difficult to eliminate. Scientists are also continuing to research and improve the program.

It can be seen to completely exterminate mosquitoes, not a short period can easily do things. To avoid the infestation of mosquitoes, we can do in our personal daily lives is mosquitoes to prevent, in the home prepare good mosquito incense, install screens, and mosquito nets, reduce the appearance of stagnant water, the appropriate use some wind oil and other mosquito repellent products, and so on. With the rapid development of biology, chemistry, and other aspects of technology, perhaps in the future, scientists can find scientific prevention and control, and reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, while not affecting the ecosystem of the method!