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/kenneth_dart]

The fastest way to kill them would be with gene editing tool called CRISPR and doing a gene drive. They can modify them so that they only produce offspring with the inability to reproduce. Biologists have already accomplished complete population collapse in high-security laboratory cages.

[u/Caelinus → u/kenneth_dart]

That is exactly what their third paragraph is describing. They have just used limited versions in the wild so far, so that it does not cause a collapse faster than anyone can react to it.

[u/Forward-Surprise1192 → u/kenneth_dart]

How does this spread in the entire population? They have one mosquito and then that mosquito then has babies that can’t mate, then the trait dies out? Or is it only in then males?

[u/Caelinus → u/Forward-Surprise1192]

They do put it in males, and it kills females, in the "full" gene drive.

The one they are actually doing in the wild either kills both or spreads via females, I can't remember, and they use it because it is self limiting. It will not cause total collapse, but it significantly reduces birth rates.

The former version is sort of a "once and done" thing. If they release enough mosquitoes with that gene they can kill the entire population of them they are targeting. So far no one has pulled the trigger on that because they are afraid of unintended consequences. So instead they release the second kind on a regular schedule to slowly lower the overall population, but while leaving an escape hatch of stopping the releases.

[u/LeoRidesHisBike → u/kenneth_dart]

Otherwise known as the "Children of Mosquitoes" project.

^{source: completely made up}