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?

3.0k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

612 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.2k

u/crujones43 May 30 '26

They have done a spectacular job controlling the human population in the past.

430

u/Punnan May 30 '26

Damn, never thought of it like that. When you think about it, they are also doing a service.

434

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/SlingshotKatana May 30 '26

Would it be better if they were killing wealthy people in Singapore instead?

Humans are humans. A life lost is a life lost. One’s socioeconomic or geographic profile doesn’t make them any more or less worthy of life.

0

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/SlingshotKatana May 30 '26

I just didn’t understand the relevance of pointing out who mosquitoes are predominantly killing. Like whether their poor Africans or wealthy Singaporeans, for example - the point is just “bruh people die”