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Domagoj Hackenberger

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Is the total eradication of mosquitoes a true solution?

Mosquitoes have a massive ecological role in nature. Especially as main food source for great number freshwater fish and birds.

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Topics: balance biology ecology mosquitoes population
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  • Jarosław Pachulski

    • 0
    Jan 5 2013: You got it wrong. Hadyn Parry was talking about lowering th population of Aedes aegypti which is invading species. It'll just help that ecosystem return to homeostasis. Interspecific exchange of genes doesn't happed (and even if it does the offspring are dead anyway) so local mosquitoes are safe.
    Only in north Africa it's extinction would make a permanent change in environment.

    • Domagoj Hackenberger

      • 0
      Jan 5 2013: What's with other species like Anopheles or Culex? Some of the mosquito species that transfer diseases are indigenous to some areas of the world.
      I did not said that there will be interspecial gene exchange. I was just concerned about ecological impact on wildlife, theoretically if we wipe out mosquitoes.

      • Luke Alphey

        • +2
        Jan 5 2013: Any intervention (chemicals, engineered sterile males, whatever) should be analysed for potential risk to the environment and human health on a case by case basis. However, as a general point Jaroslaw's "it's an invading species" is a good one - one would not expect a recently arrived species to be a key part of a native ecosystem. In general, mosquitoes are not keystone species even where they are native. A commentary in Nature in 2010 suggest that the (hypothetical) elimination of all mosquitoes would have minimal effect
        http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
        even suggested role as pollinators seems minimal
        http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7311/full/467027d.html
        However one feature of the use of engineered sterile males is that they are extremely species-specific; this would not be the elimination of 'mosquitoes' but of 'one species of mosquito in the area of the control programme'. There are about 3,500 named species of mosquito. Also, as other contributors have noted, one could suppress but not eliminate if that were thought desirable.

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