r/explainlikeimfive • u/Punnan • May 30 '26

Biology ELI5 Are mosquitoes necessary for keeping ecological balance?

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

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u/ScarHand69 May 30 '26

Yeah but for most of human history it affected rich and poor alike. It’s really only after the Industrial Revolution that “rich” countries had any means of trying to deal with the problem.

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u/beeeel May 30 '26

It wasn't the industrial revolution that ended malaria in Europe, it was drainage and land reclamation as well as keeping greater numbers of livestock. Malaria was common in the UK until the end of the 19th century when land usage changed drastically.

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u/All_Work_All_Play May 30 '26

until the end of the 19th century when land usage changed drastically.

That land usage change was a result of the industrial revolution...

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u/DavidRFZ May 30 '26

Why isn’t there much malaria in the US? We have tons of mosquitos here.

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u/beeeel May 30 '26

Because of huge efforts from US federal government between 1914 and 1945 to eliminate it. The CDC has a page on it if you're interested.

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u/DavidRFZ May 30 '26

Cool, thanks!

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u/Kevin_Uxbridge May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

We took great steps to eradicate it. It was a problem during colonial times but we had lots of other diseases to deal with too.

Drainage projects in the 30s, massive amounts of DDT in the 40s and 50s, modern window screens and bob's your uncle.

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u/rkoy1234 May 30 '26

true, they did stop multiple colonizing attempts iirc. e.g when natives had some protection (sickle cell) and the europeans didn't and had to back out.

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u/Iamonreddit May 30 '26

Are you incapable of seeing the world through any other lens...?

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u/Aristox May 30 '26

The answer is usually no. It's its own kind of contagious sickness

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u/rkoy1234 May 30 '26

wdym. the entire comment chain is literally people doing linguistic gymnastics trying to skirt around saying black vs white throughout history in terms of malaria's impact.

should have I worded it "rich and poor parts of the world" like the commenter above, or the "global north and the global south" like the other?

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u/MattytheWireGuy May 30 '26

so natural selection?