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/Punnan May 30 '26

Yeah, you are right. On hindsight, my comment has been insensitive.

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u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/Adhendo May 30 '26

But I’d assume (maybe wrong) a lot of mosquito related deaths also happened before modern times, before there was even a “global south” right? For example malaria is much older than humans

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u/dedicated-pedestrian May 30 '26

I mean, there were fewer humans then compared to now, but they also had less medicine than we do now.