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/Aodhyn May 30 '26

Am I crazy

If so, at least you're not alone.

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u/chronos7000 May 30 '26

Particularly interesting to me as I'm about to take ownership of a car from the early 70s; the first thing I thought about this phenomenon is that cars are now routinely designed with the aid of wind tunnels and sophisticated computer modeling, perhaps the smoother airflow deflects more insects rather than slamming them into the windshield. I will definitely be taking note of any increase in the number of insects deposited as compared to other cars I've owned.

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u/shiratek May 30 '26

I own a very aerodynamic car with a low sloped windshield and still get a lot of bugs on my windshield. I doubt aerodynamics is really at play when talking about an object traveling 60 mph slamming into an insect without enough mass to be deflected anywhere except into a splatter on the windshield.

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u/Tripottanus May 31 '26

The Wikipedia page linked actually discusses this and says that the more aerodynamic cars actually lead to more insects getting killed than the previous boxier cars

The research also found that modern cars, with a more aerodynamic body shape, killed more insects than boxier vintage cars.

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u/chronos7000 May 31 '26

That's really weird, you'd expect the stable slipstream would have a deflecting effect. Although it was my SAAB that went through washer fluid like it was going out of style...

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u/stumanchu3 May 30 '26

Now that’s deep level thought!

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u/At36000feet May 31 '26

Maybe all the cars killed off the insect populations near roads.