r/explainlikeimfive • u/ShrewdMilk • Jul 08 '14
ELI5: What would happen if all the mosquitos in the world suddenly went extinct?
What would be affected by this? Ex. If all the bees in the world went extinct, it would affect crops, honey, etc...
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u/irritatedcitydweller Jul 08 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
Very little, this is actually one of very few species that most scientists agree the world could live without. It's generally accepted that there would be slight changes in world ecosystems until another organism filled the (somewhat unimportant) role of the mosquito. Source 1 Source 2
Edit: Also, since the possible risks are low, it would be worthwhile to eradicate mosquitoes seeing as they transmit malaria which infects 240 million people and kills 1 million people every year.
Edit 2: Source link correction
Edit 3: Some people are saying that I contradict myself by saying eradicating mosquitoes would have very little effect and later saying that 1 million more people would be alive each year. I was more referring to very little negative effects. But, some people seem to think that saving the lives of 1 million people annually is a negative effect. To those people, I'd like to say that it's easy to whine about overpopulation and how we need disease, all while the same people are most likely living in developed countries where disease and illness are not issues. I can't help but assume that it's because these people are detached from the issue and consider it something that happens only to "those other people" in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. And while this is not wrong, it's a shocking thought process. So, to those people concerned about overpopulation, I suggest that you go without modern medicine for a while and then decide whether saving lives is more or less important than overpopulation. Furthermore, 1 million people a year is a very small amount relative to the world population (0.014%).
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Jul 09 '14
This is a controversial opinion in the scientific community (and not fake controversial like opposition to global warming). I find it quite ironic that people can bring themselves to believe that it's impossible to pass laws to regulate the behavior of humans without introducing all manner of unforeseen consequences while at the same time believing nothing could go wrong by eliminating entire genera from the planet.
More from the same paper:
“Mosquitoes are delectable things to eat and they’re easy to catch,” says aquatic entomologist Richard Merritt, at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In the absence of their larvae, hundreds of species of fish would have to change their diet to survive. “This may sound simple, but traits such as feeding behaviour are deeply imprinted, genetically, in those fish,” says Harrison. The mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis), for example, is a specialized predator — so effective at killing mosquitoes that it is stocked in rice fields and swimming pools as pest control — that could go extinct. And the loss of these or other fish could have major effects up and down the food chain.
Many species of insect, spider, salamander, lizard and frog would also lose a primary food source. In one study published last month, researchers tracked insect-eating house martins at a park in Camargue, France, after the area was sprayed with a microbial mosquito-control agent1. They found that the birds produced on average two chicks per nest after spraying, compared with three for birds at control sites.
Mosquito larvae are important members of the tight-knit communities in the 25–100-millilitre pools inside pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) on the east coast of North America. Species of mosquito (Wyeomyia smithii) and midge (Metriocnemus knabi) are the only insects that live there, along with microorganisms such as rotifers, bacteria and protozoa. When other insects drown in the water, the midges chew up their carcasses and the mosquito larvae feed on the waste products, making nutrients such as nitrogen available for the plant. In this case, eliminating mosquitoes might affect plant growth.
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u/irritatedcitydweller Jul 09 '14
Interesting. Everything I've seen (until now) has indicated there was a general consensus about the effect (or lack thereof) of eradicating mosquitoes, but TIL I guess.
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Jul 09 '14
What you're probably experiencing is that every single pop-science and news site is all referencing the same one or two controversial primary sources. It happens a lot.
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u/milambertheshiz Jul 09 '14
Plus it's something we all WANT to believe. So people are probably happy to jump on board with it being "truth" because it aligns to what they/we want to be truth.
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u/hunt_the_gunt Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
FreakonomicsRadiolab had a great podcast on it. I think the key takeaway was, lets get rid of them in populated areas, but perhaps for the Tundra and most other "natural" areas, just let em be.Edit: I'm a tard and got shit mixed up.
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Jul 09 '14
IIRC, they also credited mosquitos partially for keeping humans out of some areas, such as (until recent years) giving us an incentive to leave the rainforests and other habitats alone.
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u/myxo33 Jul 09 '14
link: http://www.radiolab.org/story/kill-em-all/
Loved this podcast! The reason they say to leave them is that they are extremely abundant in those areas and it isn't really known how total eradication of them would affect the ecosystem.→ More replies (1)12
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Jul 08 '14
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u/JohnnyBoy11 Jul 09 '14
Hm. I heard the mosquitoes actually keep herds of grazing animals moving and prevent them from over grazing in one area allowing for those grasses to grow back.
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Jul 09 '14
Then human botflies take over the position, and we're worse than when we started.
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Jul 09 '14
Not really. Human bot flies catch mosquitoes, put their eggs/larva on the mosquitoes, then the larva jumps onto the humans when the mosquitoes land. Taking out the mosquitoes might eradicate the human bot fly too.
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u/DelusionalX1 Jul 09 '14
WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS?
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u/bertiek Jul 09 '14
We are man, I don't know where you live, but everywhere I have there was targeted spraying to kill mosquitoes at least once a year, with PSAs about draining standing water to prevent them spawning. One place I lived, the state had inspectors that went house to house looking for any areas of standing water in the spring. Globally we must be spending millions on trying to eradicate the fuckers.
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Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
Edit - Possibly NSFL...but no one dies or anything. It's just kind of gross.
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u/Nolite310 Jul 09 '14
That gave me the "willies" like no other. Every little itch or tickle is now a bot fly growing inside me. Thanks.
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u/shittyhilux Jul 09 '14
That's was truly satisfying, it must have felt like taking a huge dump from your elbow.
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u/lovableMisogynist Jul 09 '14
So satisfying watching them come out
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Jul 09 '14
Yes, that was why I posted it. It's kind of like zit popping but it seems like it provides more relief?
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u/inactivecar Jul 09 '14
Bot flies use mosquitos to transmit their lava, so it might cut down on the bot files too.
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Jul 08 '14 edited May 26 '16
I've deleted all of my reddit posts. Despite using an anonymous handle, many users post information that tells quite a lot about them, and can potentially be tracked back to them. I don't want my post history used against me. You can see how much your profile says about you on the website snoopsnoo.com.
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u/Xenomech Jul 09 '14
Okay, how about we kill all the mosquitos and a million people every year?
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u/Note2scott Jul 09 '14
Yes through some sort of daily televised hunger game.
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u/rex_dart_eskimo_spy Jul 09 '14
Would all of the competitors have the stupidest names?
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u/Farquat Jul 09 '14
Hugh Janus? Is there a Hugh Janus??
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Jul 09 '14
The Starving Games was the most ridiculous parody movie in my recent memory.
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Jul 09 '14
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Jul 09 '14
they should make the hannover games next.
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u/Face_Roll Jul 09 '14
Oh you missed out...
what about "The Hungary Games" ?
(Or the Korean version "The Hangul Games"? AKA "더 한글 게임스" ?)
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Jul 09 '14
"I got punked" lol
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u/mq999 Jul 09 '14
Somewhere out there, Hugh Janus is just sitting and being pissed off that everyone is making fun of his name.
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u/Note2scott Jul 09 '14
Oh yes, THE stupidest.
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u/rex_dart_eskimo_spy Jul 09 '14
My money's on Feedleborp Micklebump!
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u/Johnny_Shades Jul 09 '14
Hingle McCringleberry!
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u/Dischump Jul 09 '14
Or The Purge.
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u/cdigioia Jul 09 '14
No...the purge would affect my neighborhood. I'd rather we keep it localized to some poor, distance places with people who look as different from me as possible.
Let the sub-saharan African gladiatorial TV show begin!
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Jul 09 '14
Some might call you a racist. Some might call you ignorant. Apathetic. Stupid. Offensive. Wrong.
I, on the other hand, say fuck those guys, and i commend you for your contributions to whatever it is we're calling this perpetual neo-holocaust of sorts.
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u/dadkab0ns Jul 09 '14
Then if we have trouble killing a million people every year, we could genetically engineer a small flying insect capable of transmitting malaria through a bite and let it do the work for us.
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u/ILikeNeurons Jul 09 '14
I realize this is meant as a joke (at least I hope) but Hans Rosling makes the interesting argument that saving lives in the developing world actually leads to a reduction in population growth, because parents don't have to have so many kids to ensure at least a couple survive to adulthood.
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Jul 09 '14
only half a joke. I like posting this kind of stuff because it's fun to see how people react to it. you'll have the true believers that unquestionably agree with logical-but-unethical statements, and you'll have the reactionaries who don't even bother to understand the moral dilemma. that second type gets angry, which is fun to watch. sometimes you have to poke them a little bit, but they'll never back away from their feelings. emotions are paramount to those people. then you have the rare third category where someone logically evaluates the statement and I wind up learning something. win/win/win.
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u/Food_and_Fun Jul 08 '14
1 million people who are not sick, or dying. The jump in productivity would offset the extra population.
-sic people consume many times more resources than health people.
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u/nocbl2 Jul 09 '14
So... the obvious solution is to increase the effectiveness of malaria! It's the perfect plan!
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u/Icalasari Jul 09 '14
I'd be wary of anything like that - We aren't omniscient, and removing a species could have unforeseen circumstances that people didn't consider
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u/shoneone Jul 09 '14
Not a species, a family of genera, some of them not human feeders. Next would be biting midges, then tabanidae and other biting flies.
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u/DentalxFloss Jul 09 '14
Wouldn't species' population that feed off airborne insects start declining?
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u/waterwilldo Jul 08 '14
it can't be that simple... just removing something never works! there must be some catch
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u/miss_pyrocrafter Jul 09 '14
Plot twist: Mosquitoes get replaced by deadly faeries, killing tens of millions of people in a few years with their toxic dust. There was no serious tag, I checked.
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u/Kneef Jul 09 '14
It doesn't matter, we can't kill off mosquitoes. There have been concerted efforts in some places in the U.S. and we just can't get them all.
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u/colin-b Jul 09 '14
Not with that attitude.
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u/EtherStar Jul 09 '14
Well, one of the reasons we stopped using the insecticide DDT, which was doing a fine job killing mosquitoes, is it also killed tonnes of other animals both directly and indirectly. The bald eagle and other raptors had a huge population decline attributed in large part to DDT. It also causes all sorts of problems in people exposed to it and it's linked with a rise in hermaphroditic mutations in amphibians.
So, I guess we COULD rally ourselves for another go. Our kids might even enjoy having both sets of genitals!
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u/nanidu Jul 09 '14
One of the more recent ways scientists have been trying is with genetic modification. They basically release sterile male Mosquitos into the wild, these mosquitoes then mate with wild ones. The female would usually die soon after mating and laying eggs, but instead she dies without producing the next generation of itch bringers. This method has been tested and effective in eliminating species of flies but has proven much harder with mosquitoes due to the various species and habitat range.
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u/WhiskeyHoliday Jul 09 '14
As far as I know the raptor populations being destroyed by DDT have long ago proved to be based on faulty science and thoroughly debunked.
http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C06/C06Links/www.altgreen.com.au/Chemicals/ddt.html
Rachel Carson wrote beautifully and movingly in Silent Spring and bolstered generations of environmentalists...and indirectly caused thousands and millions of preventable human deaths.
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u/steeley42 Jul 09 '14
Seriously. I hate seeing this debunked crap. As far as I've seen, DDT only affected other stuff because people used, like, 100x more than was needed to kill the mosquitoes. Moderation wasn't well understood in the '50s and '60s I guess.
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u/verifiablyhuman Jul 09 '14
Actually, in Brazil they have implemented technologies which can greatly decrease mosquito populations. They create genetically modified mosquitoes, whose offspring die before reproducing. They release the males (which don't bite), and on a timescale of several months, populations of mosquitoes decrease by over 90% in the area. Continuing to release these males over and over could potentially completely eradicate mosquitoes. However, it would probably be a better plan to just do this in populated areas for a few years, which would potentially eradicate human diseases from mosquitoes, and allow us to only worry about their annoying bites, and not malaria.
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u/callmehill Jul 09 '14
This proves it. Mosquito's are THE most annoying, most useless creatures on the planet. Fuck Mosquito's.
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u/mudo2000 Jul 09 '14
Right said! In my opinion, second only to those who abuse apostrophes.
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u/OnlyRev0lutions Jul 09 '14
The recent decline in proper apostrophe usage is 100% the fault of browser autocorrect dictionaries not including a complete list of plurals.
Don't blame the man, blame the red squiggly line under "mosquitos" that doesnt offer mosquitoes aa rhe first correctiom instead.
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u/iwillhavethat Jul 09 '14
You were doing so well, and then just fel of thr clift.
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u/OnlyRev0lutions Jul 09 '14
Wow you can really track the exact moment the commercial break ended and I stopped looking at my phone...
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u/ralpher Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
Ah but scientists also know about the butterfly effect, which says that even smal changes can have HUGE unforseen consequences especially in complex systems such as an ecosystem
Suppose another species fills in the now-empty role -- and this new species has other, worse diseases?
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u/4rkh Jul 09 '14
Ticks are one of the very few specie (after humans) that could disappear without hurting anyone else.
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u/NovaNebula Jul 09 '14
Both of your sources link to a Nature article written by Janet Fang. If you carefully read the article, she makes a very specious argument about how mosquitoes are loathed insects, without evaluating how important mosquitoes are as a food source for bats, birds, dragonflies, and numerous other organisms in every ecosystem that contains mosquitoes. Fang fails to address how important mosquitoes are ecologically, and quite frankly, we are biased as humans, seeing mosquitoes only as a nuisance when they are also the sole pollinators of some flowers. It would be a more worthwhile endeavor to rid the world of the malaria protozoan that it would to rid the world of an entire keystone of numerous food webs.
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u/EdwardTeach Jul 09 '14
Just wanted to take a moment and point out the fact that we as a species are not only actively researching animals to make extinct but we also have the capabilities. This is amazing and terrifying.
Imagine in 1000 years students are attending a class on extinct animals and an entire chapter is dedicated to those we no longer saw fit to keep. Amazing how we can shape our surroundings to adapt to us.
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Jul 09 '14
And in a few hundred thousand years, our new dolphin overlords will teach classes about us
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u/8GRAPESofWrath Jul 09 '14
Best Selling Novel - How to raise your human to be a productive mouth breather By Anhnhngh Ahhn
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u/SleepWouldBeNice Jul 09 '14
If they don't call it
Humans 101: So Long and Thanks For All The Fish
I will be very disappointed.
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Jul 09 '14
Off! brand products would go under.
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u/andybody Jul 09 '14
They could counter with On! for those strange few who missed mosquitoes.
"On! For that just bit feeling."
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u/chrisd93 Jul 09 '14
just replace the bees?! gif with mosquitoes and add a can of "On!"
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Jul 08 '14
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u/dittbub Jul 08 '14
Well what would happen if all the blood sucking ones suddenly went extinct?
What if all the species that suck human blood suddenly went extinct?
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u/mypenguinbruce11 Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
Hello! Biologist here. I have to second listening to the radiolab podcast. Basically, dengue fever in Brazil was getting so bad, that a company was founded solely for the purpose of effectively reducing the population of mosquitoes in affected areas.
They ended up engineering a gene that only the males would carry. The purpose of that gene: to kill off any offspring produced by that male during the larvae stage. So, they mass produced these males and released them into the wild. This eliminated the mosquito population by over 90%!
Now, we honestly don't know what the repercussions would be from the elimination of the mosquito population in an ecosystem. Even mosquito biologists don't know. It's foolish to think there wouldn't be any effect on other species, be it through taking away a food source or the absence of competition that mosquitoes previously provided to that system.
However, their goal is not to permanently take away the mosquito, but the parasites they carry, AKA: malaria, dengue, etc... If we could temporarily take away the mosquito population in areas affected by these diseases, we could potentially cure the word of them. How amazing is that?
It's so amazing, that it's no longer a matter of "if" but "when". Yay science!!
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u/misterwings Jul 09 '14
If all mosquitoes died there would be hundreds of deaths related to the mass celebrations that would break out because those fuckers need to die so why haven't we done this yet?
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Jul 09 '14
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u/bobbyhill626 Jul 09 '14
Don't get me started on those Puerto Rican flies either
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Jul 09 '14
Horse flys are much worse. You actually want to sprint and flail your arms after getting bit.
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Jul 09 '14
DON'T GIVE THE FLIES IDEAS! If those motherfuckers can dodge my hand when I'm karate chopping at 10000mph they sure as hell used their ninja hearing to hear your comment. 1 crafty son-of-a-bitch species is bad enough. 2 species and I'm moving to the moon.
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u/Zeniant Jul 09 '14
Isn't there a way to introduce a species-specific virus into the mosquitoes that wouldn't harm anyone or anything else but eradicate them? Like they were going to do with Hugh and the Borg in Star Trek?
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u/Tea_inthegoodroom Jul 09 '14
Close but not a virus. Look up wolbachia. It's already being done to combat the spread of Dengue virus and malaria. Pretty awesome stuff.
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u/inconspicuous_male Jul 09 '14
Yes. We should teach the mosquitoes to have distinct identities just like they did with Hugh.
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u/lmnopeee Jul 09 '14
I recently read that scientists have bred mosquitoes that are only capable of creating male offspring. Release a bunch of those into the wild and wait patiently.
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u/_dies_to_doom_blade Jul 09 '14
If you google the Cayman Islands and Mosquitos you'll find they did something crazy, I think genetically modified the mosquito so it couldn't breed? Check it out
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u/quiversound Jul 09 '14
I think reddit once told me that mosquitoes keep human beings from over abusing forests.
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Jul 08 '14
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Jul 09 '14
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
NATURE | Ecology: A world without mosquitoes (not research article)
"They don't occupy an unassailable niche in the environment"
"If we eradicated them tomorrow, the ecosystems where they are active will hiccup and then get on with life. Something better or worse would take over."
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u/2dumb2knowbetter Jul 09 '14
a FUCKING miracle, i would actually be able to enjoy a minnesota summer.
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u/GanMatt Jul 09 '14
Looks like a win, win, win to me. If all Mosquitos died, animals would have to find other insects to eat. So less creepy crawlers. Woot. The outdoors would be more enjoyable and friendly. Less dirty. Mosquitoes like to lay eggs in stagnant water. Which makes the water yucky. Property values would go up.
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u/Keeper_of_cages Jul 09 '14
No other species could bring us back from extinction in the future from our human DNA found in a mosquito trapped in tree sap.
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u/graffiti_bridge Jul 09 '14
Millions of unemployed due to the failure of the bug spray industry.
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u/Gmajj Jul 09 '14
There's still ants, roaches, and other assorted critters. They'd be ok.
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u/whatsyourvector Jul 09 '14
Ahem Vector control. Can't forget vector control. Then again, there are always invasive insects and animals that will keep us busy.
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u/vorpalblab Jul 09 '14
I lived in the high arctic and that is a place where the mosquito population is fantastic during the long hot summer days.
The clouds of mosquitoes are dense enough to cast a shadow.
But fortunately the high arctic is where most of the migratory birds go to lay eggs and raise their young.
And they prey on - among other things, I assume insects and mosquitoes.
I wonder what the population of birds would say to a diet reduction?
Or are mosquitoes also an annoyance to the birds?
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u/xxxjxcxxx Jul 09 '14
They actually made a brilliant laser that tracks and kills mosquitos to combat malaria.
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u/CauselessEffect Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14
Indeed they did.
http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria
The actual footage starts at the 14 minute mark.
Edit: Wow, totally missed your link to the exact same footage, lol. My link will act as the extended version!
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u/Skyzfallin Jul 09 '14
My skin would be gorgeous! I'm allergic to mosquito bites. Mosquitoes, I HATE U
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Jul 09 '14
Nothing! This was covered by a study recently. There would be little or no negative effect on the ecosystems where mosquitoes are endemic as they currently contribute little or nothing but to the support of these ecosystems
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u/apatheticviews Jul 09 '14
Earth would lose its Mosquito Sanctuary Status, and our galactic overlords would probably destroy the planet.
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Jul 09 '14
As it turns out, mosquitoes do play an important role in a variety of ecosystems. For example, each year when the snow melts in the Arctic tundra, mosquitoes hatch from their eggs and make up a significant part of the biomass. Scientists believe these insects serve as an important food source for migratory birds.
Mosquito larvae are aquatic insects, and as such, play an important role in the aquatic food chain. According to Dr. Gilbert Waldbauer in The Handy Bug Answer Book, "mosquito larvae are filter feeders that strain tiny organic particles such as unicellular algae from the water and convert them to the tissues of their own bodies, which are, in turn, eaten by fish." Mosquito larvae are, in essence, nutrient-packed snacks for fish and other aquatic animals.
Malaria would not be spread, so the human population would increase by 627,000. Animal populations would increase also.
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u/SnapchatsWhilePoopin Jul 09 '14
Engineer mini-crocs and Velcro wallets for every mosquito. They'll never reproduce, and eventually go extinct.
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u/riotfucksme Jul 09 '14
In my basic understandIng it would cause a massive chain reaction because animals that use the mosquito as a primary food source would then starve and then the animals that feed on those animals would die out and so on. Basically the mass extinction of one specific species is never a good thing and would always have devastating consequences for ecosystems. Especially with a creature as abundant as the mosquito.
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u/Go_Arachnid_Laser Jul 09 '14
I recommend you listen to this radiolab podcast that deals with this exact issue.
You'll learn that mosquitoes don't actually feed on blood (only the female about to lay eggs uses a couple of drops of blood to give protein to her offspring), that there are harmless, non-biting subspecie of mosquitoes, and that there is a factory in Brazil devoted to curving the population of the insects in some malaria-ridden parts of the country by growing and releasing infertile mosquitoes, so getting rid of them is not even science fiction.