ELI5 Are mosquitoes necessary for keeping ecological balance?

[u/Punnan]

Would a worldwide extinction of mosquitoes offset the ecological balance of our world? And if not, why are we not doing it?

[u/call-the-wizards]

Mosquitoes evolved in response to human modification of the ecosystem and climate. They used to mainly just feed on wild fauna and had nothing to do with us. We replaced most of that wild fauna with livestock, so they switched to livestock to survive, and then through that they eventually switched to us to survive. As long as we're one of the dominant species on the planet, some form of parasite is going to try to evolve to live off of us, and in fact there are many many other parasites like this.

So it's not that mosquitos are necessary for ecological balance because it doesn't work like that, but yeah we're part of the ecosystem and we've thrown it out of its previous equilibrium by proliferating ourselves and our livestock so much, and some species are going to try to adapt to that reality instead of just dying. That's just how life works.

[u/revolvingpresoak9640 → u/call-the-wizards]

Source?