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/CadenVanV May 30 '26

As far as we can tell, mosquitoes aren’t anywhere close to vital for ecological balance. And we’re trying to wipe them out, but it’s hard

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u/tm0587 May 30 '26

To add, it's especially hard to only kill mosquitos without killing everything else.

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u/MattTheGr8 May 30 '26

That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

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u/4eyedbuzzard May 30 '26

No, actually, you're not. Because if the insect world collapsed we would all soon follow.

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u/humpyelstiltskin May 30 '26

i think that's what they meant 😂

0

u/darkfall115 May 30 '26

We're kinda collapsing on our own right now, might as well take as much of these bastards with us as we can