Mosquitoes are present everywhere in this world. Actually, there are more than 3500 species of mosquito, and they can be found on every continent except one. That’s right – you guessed it correctly – Antarctica. But why are they so important for this world and for us humans and would there be dire consequences if all mosquitoes went extinct? Let’s find out.
Everything in nature is connected. Well, probably not exactly everything but most things in nature do interconnect in one way or another. Thus, extinction of one whole species could have big consequences on many other species.
For example, if one animal species is completely dependent on mosquitoes, or to be more precise, this one species eats mostly mosquitoes, then it would be challenging for this animal species to survive.
Related:
The Role of Mosquitoes in the Ecosystem
Before we delve into the hypothetical scenario of a mosquito-less world, it’s important to understand the role mosquitoes play in the ecosystem. These seemingly annoying insects are essential components of various ecosystems, serving as both pollinators and prey for other species.
- Pollinators: Many mosquito species are nectar-feeders, and as they seek nectar from flowers, they inadvertently transfer pollen, aiding in the pollination of plants. Losing mosquitoes would disrupt this delicate ecological balance, potentially impacting the reproduction of certain plants and the animals that rely on them.
- Food Source: Mosquito larvae and adult mosquitoes serve as a primary food source for a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial species. Fish, birds, bats, and insects all rely on mosquitoes as a critical part of their diet. Removing mosquitoes could trigger a ripple effect through the food web, impacting the populations of these creatures.
- Nutrient Recycling: Mosquitoes also play a role in nutrient recycling. Their larvae feed on organic matter in stagnant water, helping to break down dead plant material and release essential nutrients back into the ecosystem.
Who Would Suffer the Most?
As mentioned, there are many predators who eat mosquitoes, but in most cases it is not their only diet. Therefore, those beforementioned would not go extinct if mosquitoes went extinct.
Nonetheless, their numbers would probably go down. Consequently, their lower numbers would impact many other species and so on. As mentioned in the beginning of this post, everything is (sort of) interconnected in nature and in the animal world.
So the first conclusion would be – YES, mosquito extinction would have significant impact to the whole ecosystem and to the world.
But how big of an impact? Can we potentially measure it?
This is rather hard to measure, because we can’t know the level of adaptations of some species.
The same as we can’t know how humans would adapt if we removed all the pizzas from this world.
Perhaps this is a silly example, but it paints the picture of how it would be hard to measure the impact of extinction of anything, because we can’t know how some species would adapt to lesser amount of something.
Mosquitos and Humans
As we concluded, there would probably be significant impact to different ecosystems in the unfortunate event of mosquito extinction. But what about us humans?
I mean, for us mosquitoes are mostly strenuous in every possible way. They bother us at night, they bother us when we’re outside enjoying drinks with our friends. They bother us with their sounds and most importantly with their annoying bites.
But they are not only inconvenience for us. They actually do harm us big time. And by “big time” I mean that they are one of most dangerous animals for us.
How – one could ask? Well, Malaria of course.
Around 250 million people are infected by Malaria each year and almost one million people die of its consequences. Now, those are some substantial numbers.
But could other animals transfer malaria? Actually not. Almost all malaria cases are a result of being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito.
Mosquitoes are also notorious vectors of other diseases, dengue fever, Zika virus, and West Nile virus. If mosquitoes were to go extinct, the transmission of these diseases would undoubtedly decrease, saving countless human lives and reducing suffering.
So, it could be definitively concluded that mosquitoes cause us great harm and in big numbers.
In that case, one would think that in case of complete mosquito elimination or extinction, we would be better off as humans.
Not so fast!
The Real Impact
Mosquitoes evolved some 79 million years ago, according to the latest fossil findings. And modern humans evolved around 200,000 years ago.
So, we have been living together with mosquitos since day one. At first, we for sure didn’t ask ourselves questions from the beginning of this post
- What if?
- What would happen if?
- Could we live without them?
- Could they live without us?
- No mosquito, no cry….
Ok, the last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get the point.
Nevertheless, in modern times, we’re asking those questions as we progressed and have much more free time to hypothesize about different questions and ideas.
Having said that, let’s get into different types of impact and potential consequences for humans (positive or negative).
3 Types of Impact to Humans
- Plant pollination and impact on humans?
There are many other species that pollinate plants. Mosquitoes are not crucial in that process. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any big consequences for the plant world. Thus, with this proposition there wouldn’t be big consequences for us humans.
- Impact on other animals and impact on humans?
As discussed briefly in beginning of this post, mosquitoes are not the main food source for any animal. Many animals feed of them but they could live without mosquitos. It’s not that mosquitoes are important for any animal in such way as, for example, bamboos are important for Pandas. Namely, Pandas subsist almost entirely on bamboo. Thus, with this proposition there wouldn’t be big consequences for us humans.
- Direct impact to humans?
We are not using mosquitoes for anything crucial. They are not used for production of some important goods, nor do we use them as foods. We use them in different experiments but that is about it. Therefore, there wouldn’t be any direct consequences for us.
Granted, all of this is based on our assumptions. We really cannot know. Perhaps nature in this case would take a completely different turn and all our assumptions would have been thrown in water.
Think about so called Butterfly Effect. As per Merriam Webster, Butterfly Effect is a property of chaotic systems (such as the atmosphere) by which small changes in initial conditions can lead to large-scale and unpredictable variation in the future state of the system.
So, if by chaos theory, even minor changes can lead to potentially big variations, then extinction of mosquitos could lead to some really significant unpredictable events.
Those unpredictable events could be, for example: people starting to have thinner skin which would then lead to more skin diseases and cancer which in 1000 years would lead to completely different mutation of humans who have skin covered with some kind of artificial leather which then leads us to completely different future evolution, which then leads us to humans deciding not go to outside anymore, which then leads to voluntarily accepting to be connected to computers constantly, which at the end lead to full simulation theory.
…and all this because of mosquitoes… Hah…
