Mosquitoes: Are they non-essential lifeforms?

Question

If obnoxious mosquitoes were made extinct, would the ecosystem miss them? Their presence seems more harm than heal, so should these flying insects of disease spreading be wiped-out? Who would shed a tear for the mosquito?

Answer 1

Ther are animals that eat them: frogs, various reptiles and so on. Any interfernce of that scale in the food chain is major trouble. We may not like them, but we've lived with them so far.

Answer 2

Most people would answer that yes, since they are a food source for many other insect-eating animals such as birds and frogs, then their loss would cause a major upheaval in Earth's ecosystem.

However, I would suggest that the consequences would be minimal to non-existent, depending upon how you define their extinction.

#1) If the entire Culicidae family of animals were to have never appeared on the evolutionary sequence...

I believe the impact would be non-existent. Any of a huge number of other animals, or more specifically insects (class Insecta) could easily fill the mosquito's ecological niche, even without introducing any brand new families to replace it.

#2) If in an instantaneous moment in time, every member of the Culicidae family were to suddenly cease to exist...

This would definitely cause an ecological shift, but I would suggest that it would be minimal and short-lived. Again, this is due to the overwhelming numbers of creatures currently within the class Insecta which can easily, and eventually, replace mosquitos. This also considers that their lifespan and reproduction rates are incredibly fast. In a small amount of time, other insects and especially those of order Diptera (flies, which formerly also included mosquitos) would increase in their own numbers and fill in the gap. And I believe that this time frame would be so small that the impact of the sudden non-existence of family Culcidae would be minimally felt, e.g. no mass starvation of birds, fish, or frogs. (Mosquitos consist of only a small percentage of their diet.)

Answer 3

They are essential; the cool thing about our world is that all things in it are essential.

The mosquito larva is a valued food source to fish, frogs, and other aquatic insects, both adult and larva. Without them there would be wide spread collapse of the food chain.

And while the blood suckers do spread disease, which can kill humans but, that affect a large portion of the animal kingdom. It is this disease and death that does play a vital roll in population control and provides consumables to the decomposers and carrion feeders in a health ecosystem.

And yes with West Nile, Malaria, Ebola, and Hepatitis as just some of the viruses that mosquitoes can carry, it is only the females that suck blood, and only during certain times of the year.

Answer 4

There are any number of organisms, from dragonflies to frogs and spiders, swallows, bats and many birds that all eat mosquitoes. For some of them mosquitoes form a very large proportion of their diet. Those species would certainly be affected if mosquitoes were wiped out.

Would the ecosystem miss them? To some extent. Eventually, other insects such as midges might be able to expand into the habitats vacated by the mosquitoes. There might be some associated ecological damage should mosquitoes blink out of existence, but in general everything would survive.

The problem is that there is no way to get mosquitoes to simply 'blink out of existence'. People have been trying to wipe out mosquitoes for centuries, and have never succeeded.

The methods that would be required to wipe out all of the mosquito species would definitely have a huge impact on other lifeforms. Even if we were to completely pave over every inch of the planet to remove all of the field pools and ditches and fill in every larval development site we could find, there would still be container developing species that could thrive as larvae in eavestroughs, old tires, even discarded pop bottles. However all of those predators that used to help keep mosquito populations down would all be gone. No dragonflies, no frogs, no bats.

Mosquitoes are able to exploit such a wide range of habitats, some of them very temporary that it would be pretty much impossible to get rid of every spot mosquito larvae could develop. They breed prolifically, and that blood meal that makes them so annoying is used as a source of protein to produce huge numbers of eggs and larvae, so they can build populations very quickly. Widespread chemical controls will have as much impact or greater impact on other organisms as they do on mosquitoes.

Even if we wanted to kill off every single mosquito, I seriously doubt that we could.

Answer 5

They lived longer than us on earth since the dinosaur, so it would be a little problem if they extinct cause they have been foods to many insects and birds alike.And not all mosquito spread diseases.

Answer 6

Parasites help to deliver karma.

They say that there will be even more malaria and other mosquito borne parasitic diseases with global waming as the temperate zones warm up even more. That would-could affect both humans and animals.

Karma function of parasites stated in Vedic texts

Answer 7

Bats and other organisms depend on mosquitos as a food source. So I would miss the bats.

Answer 8

Mosquitoes are an integral part of the food chain.

Answer 9

Yes, they would be missed. They provide food for countless birds and other bugs. If we hadn't buggered up nature's balancing processes, we wouldn't have a problem with them.

Answer 10

they are the lowest life form to ever set foot on the planet they ar pure vampires and bloodsuckers we could all do without them