Why haven't mosquitoes been eliminated?

[scotth266]

I mean, they kill millions of people a year. They serve no purpose. They cause misery. I just don't see why scientists devise some method to eliminate them. If you have any ideas on how we could go about doing this, speak up.

The only real ways to eliminate them would most likely be genetic manipulation or poison, both of which are INSANELY complicated if they are to be done right, especially since you don't want to make super-skeeters.

 

[Aytasammich(theoriginal)]

I personally don't think, even if the event of there extinction caused the extinction of other animals, us humans would be particularly effected. Indeed, I have theorised, basing on animals and plants we actually NEED (as apposed to justwannakeepalive), that killing ALL insects would be survivable. Think, what do we need: Farm animals, most of which eat grass, water, which remains independant of other animals, fruit, for which we have seeds.
See, no problem. And, of the moral issue, I present to you the rabbit. Those pests feel absolutely no remorse whilst driving bilbies out of their homes. If i've neglected a fact that would make all this wrong, please do inform me.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

In Madagascar, they completely wiped out sleeping sickness by obliterating the island's population of Tsetse flies. Utterly. No major ecological changes were noted.


Did anyone here take A-Level Bio? Okay, for those that didn't, here's a lesson.

1. Obliterating mosquitoes would be shite-difficult. But possible, if we really, really tried it. Theoretically. It could certainly be removed in localised populations, such as Maurtitus and Madagascar, etc. But other than that...not possible, and not really worth it. Just sell people quinine-laced mosquito nets, and the malaria rate will drop so fast it'll be scary.

2. While the removal of mosquitoes would be very, very bad for the ecosystem, it would not cause a golgothan, apocalyptic collapse. Very few species of insectivore rely wholly on mosquitoes for their food, and those that do are clearly unfit for survival. What might happen is a significant fall in the population of insectivores and their other food sources. However, since the liklihood is that the insectivore population will fall much faster than the insect population, the equilibrium will be maintained.

3. I'm all for it. WIPE THEM OUT. ALL OF THEM.

 

[Copter400]

As has been mentioned in previous posts, Mother Nature is a complete ***** known for her twisted sense of humour. Should we not even remove but just cause a decrease in the mosquito population, it could have some very Half-Life unforeseen consequences.

For example, take a look at China's attempt to exterminate the Four Great Pests (one of which was sparrows) at around the time of their 'Great Leap Forward' campaign. There was a huge drop in sparrow numbers, which meant that the extermination was going pretty good. Success.

The sparrows were an integral part to containing the locust population. When the locusts fucking exploded, they helped to make things worse for people already suffering from the nasty problems caused by the Great Leap Forward. Failure. 38 million people died in the ensuing famine.

God knows what will happen if you killed off mosquitoes. The bats will probably switch their primary food source to people.

 

[madhaha]

Yes, this is a brilliant idea, because humans eliminating species has had wonderful effects on the planet so far.

I personally think that getting rid of smallpox was a pretty good deal...

 

[wrightofway]

While building the Panama Canal the United States utterly wiped out yellow fever and greatly reduced malaria in the region. Today the area around the canal is both yellow fever and malaria free.

This shows that on a small scale, at least, you can get rid of the disease ridden pests without killing all of the mosquitoes.

 

[LewsTherin]

God knows what will happen if you killed off mosquitoes. The bats will probably switch their primary food source to people.

I'll get the video camera.

 

[Highlandheadbanger]

Its true that widespread efforts have been made to cut down their numbers. The bastards multiply worse then rabbits and they make life hell for people around the world.

But I think this also raises a much larger ethical and philosophical question: What will we come of the extinction of the mosquito?

It will make life better for many people around the world, this probably goes with almost no doubt, but this also introduce the question(s)regarding:

1) Putting the rights of mosquitos to exist below those of humans seems a simple and easy quarry at first, but does this open up the doors of logic and reasoning to exterminating other, higher-evolved species for human benefit?

2a) While I have campaigned for the betterment of suffering people in the past (especially with the people of poorer African nations whose sufferings have more to do with the meddlings of international powers than the whole of the peoples own failings), I also have to look at the greater balance of nature and the possiblilities of further planetary disruption by not only exterminating a species, but intentionally changingt the enviromental matrix of the planetary whole.

2b)(For those of ya'll who have no idea what the bloody hell I'm talking about I'll apologize and reiterate Every non-enviromentalist effort to mold the enviroment artificially has pretty much failed miserably (i.e. invasive species transplantation). Removing the natural population check of mosquitos will allow humans to propogate with more ease and hurt the entirety of the planet with even more overpopulation.

I realize how much crap I've written, but at the very least anyone whos ever taken a course in Enviromental Science will know what I'm talking about.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Cockroaches are a type of beetle.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I realize how much crap I've written, but at the very least anyone whos ever taken a course in Enviromental Science will know what I'm talking about.

Or anyone who has a strong interest in nature.

2b)(For those of ya'll who have no idea what the bloody hell I'm talking about I'll apologize and reiterate Every non-enviromentalist effort to mold the enviroment artificially has pretty much failed miserably (i.e. invasive species transplantation). Removing the natural population check of mosquitos will allow humans to propogate with more ease and hurt the entirety of the planet with even more overpopulation.

Pretty much. Even doing something supposedly "safe" can have serious and lasting consequences. Look at the bright idea of mixing European honey bees with African bees, and keeping them all in hives with special coverings so the queens can't escape. Good idea, unless the person in charge takes a short holiday and his replacement comes and takes all of those covers off because he doesn't know what they are. Now the USA has killer bees, which as well as killing several people so far, has resulted in a god-awful movie of the same name.

 

[Scarecrow38]

I'd say there are too many of them, there is no product that is both fully safe for all other living things and fully effective and you would never get all the nations on Earth to spend millions of dollars trying to do it.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

Wouldn't that be beetles rather than cockroaches? I mean, one-quarter of all of the animal species in the world are beetles, with about 350,000 species of them known to date.

Nope, cockroaches. Surprisingly similar in many ways to today's cockroaches, even with over 320 million years of evolution. Periods that wiped out nearly all life on earth didn't hinder them one little bit, they went on to survive and even thrive. What Darwin said about being the most able to adapt for survival is very true, and more so with this lowly bug.

Or it could just be that they ate the other 95% that died after the asteroid, volcano or godly fart wiped them all out.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Cockroaches are a type of beetle.

A common misconception. While they look similar they aren't closely related, in fact the closest relation to the cockroach is the equally intractable termite.

Easy way to tell that these are two distinct insect families - Beetles go through a complete metamorphosis from their laval stage through to adulthood. Like a lot of other insects, they start off as grubs/worms/little wriggly things, then become beetles at some later point in their lives, just like caterpillars and butterflies. Cockroaches eggs hatch something that looks for all the world like a small cockroach, which moults its skin every so often until it reaches adulthood.

 

[Jenny Creed]

If mosquitos were extinct the ecosystem might take a hit, but it'd survive. It's actually very sturdy. And it's not like we've always been conscientious enough to consider that. No, this is the answer to the OP's question: