2006-07-28 12:16:42 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
They fund the repellant industry, providing American jobs. You don't want to be unpatriotic, do you??
2006-07-28 12:31:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 4⤋
Mosquitos, while harmful when carrying disease are the major food sources for thousands of creatures. Mosquitos are what is considered a Keystone species, meaning that without them a specific part of almost all ecosystems would collapse and the result would be chaos... much like if you removed the keystone from an arch above your door, the whole frame would collapse.
You wouldnt just be sentencing mosquitos to death, but all creatures in an ecosystem would be effected right up to the top predators.... For example, male mosquitos feed only on nectar only the females consume a blood meal before laying thier eggs (they also feed on nectar) when they feed on the nectar, they help to pollinate many plants...take them away and those plants suffer and the population decreases, affecting any other creatures dependant upon the plants, then the creatures that feed on the plant creatures suffer because of the population decline in thier prey...etc etc it goes on and on. So many creatures rely heavily on mosquitos for thier food source, such as Bats, Frogs/Toads, Nighthawks, Whipoorwills, Dragonflies, Barn swallows, Tree swallows, Purple martins, Paraques, Spiders, Minnows and adult Fish of many species feed on the mosquito larvae in the water, and water bugs and tadpoles and dragonfly nymphs and all sorts of aquatic creatures or creatures in thier aquatic phase of life.Toxorhynchites(mosquito hawks) and predator crustaceans, nematodes, and fungi also feed on mosquitos. Also most mosquito larvae feed on microorganisms, but a few are predatory on other mosquito larvae. So they also help to control populations of thier prey. Every living creature benefits another in some way all are dependant on one another for survival, every creature on this planet is beneficail in one way or another, and while this may sound cruel without mosquitos who would be controlling the human population? We probably owe our current way of life to mosquitos in a way, because without thier transmission of malaria we would be so overpopulated right now that people would be starving to death and have no where to live, the malarial parasite carried by mosquitos has been estimated to be the cause of half of all human deaths since the stone age, if all the people killed by them had lived to reproduce the world would be so overpopulated that in all likeliy hood we would either be extinct because we all starved to death after eating everything in the world, or we would have had a major dying out and would not be at the numbers we are today.
2006-07-28 22:16:21 · answer #2 · answered by Kelly + Eternal Universal Energy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mosquitoes do not have benefits per say although some animals have adapted to eating them. They are a predatory parasite which is an opportunistic organism and has no real advantage to its surrounding ecosystem.
One can argue that they steal protean form one source and provide it to another. Another argument is that they spread disease to control overpopulation. Either way, they are not necessary for the ecosystem to survive.
2006-07-28 12:30:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
They're food for bats, fish, spiders, etc...and birds eat spiders, cats eat birds,...and so on....without mosquitoes the food chain would be screwed up and some species of animals could become extinct.
2006-07-28 13:25:18 · answer #4 · answered by Kim 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They're a necessary part of the food chain. Humans may wonder why God created so many mosquitoes, while frogs and birds and bats etc may wish that God had created even more mosquitoes!
2006-07-28 12:23:38 · answer #5 · answered by Joni DaNerd 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They are food for quite a few animals and research showed that the chemical that they use to bite with out being detected was a great local anesthetic. Dentist currently use something similar to rub on an injection site before giving you the shot.
2006-07-28 12:20:15 · answer #6 · answered by hansca04 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They helped to inspire the invention of "off" which has provided jobs, housing, education costs, wow, someone even fell in love probably at the canning plant. Thankyou mesquito.
2006-07-28 13:05:26 · answer #7 · answered by ? 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are food for bats.
2006-07-28 12:18:08 · answer #8 · answered by Jason N 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To give us something to whine about.
2006-07-28 12:19:04 · answer #9 · answered by jmk_jenmarie 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
frog food
2006-07-28 12:20:46 · answer #10 · answered by psychopete 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
food for bats and fish?
2006-07-28 12:18:11 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋