Mosquitoes play a vital role in the food chain.
As they buzz in your ears, swarm your family picnic and leave you with itchy raised bumps, you likely wonder what are mosquitoes good for? You probably haven't witnessed much good from them throughout your life, but, like every creature, mosquitoes do serve a purpose.
Probably one of the most well known, and like the one they are most infamous for, is population control in the human and animal world. Mosquitoes also feed other creatures, and are responsible for migratory bird populations in the north. Does this Spark an idea?
Population Control and Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes spread malaria and other diseases that help maintain a balance in population
Though we don't much like to think about disease as being a good thing, mosquitoes bring disease that helps control populations in both the human and animal worlds. This isn't a popular view since they do so by causing death. However, population control in the Third World is rather important since many go without basic necessities.
An over-populated Third World could lead to mass famine and spread of far more infectious diseases than those caused by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes also play a vital role in animal population by spreading diseases that cause death.
Bottom of the Food Chain
Spiders rely on mosquitoes as food and help control the mosquito population
Mosquitoes provide a great source of nutrients for many creatures. They serve as a main food source for many critters that hang out in the water. Mosquitoes lay eggs in the water and the larvae feed fish and other sea life.
Full-grown mosquitoes provide nutrition for bats, dragonflies, spiders, birds and anything else that happens to catch them as they fly by.
Migratory Birds
Birds need mosquitoes for nutrition to feed their young
If it weren't for mosquitoes, migratory birds wouldn't be able to survive the long flight from the south to the north once warmer weather arrives. Birds breed in the north and rely on mosquitoes and other bugs to feed their young once they hatch. Without them, birds may not migrate and produce offspring in the north.
Controlling Mosquito Outbreaks
Knowing that mosquitoes provide some good for humans, our role in controlling the mosquito population is a delicate one.
"If the species of mosquitoes that are intimately connected with human beings were made to disappear, there might be some ecological disturbance, but you probably could remove them without catastrophe," according to professor Elizabeth Wilson, an entomologist and environmental ethicist at the University of Arizona.
However, to kill off all mosquitoes we would likely kill off a lot of over valuable species on Earth. So, it's safe to control mosquitoes in your immediate environment, but remain conscious of the fact that other species rely on them for food and survival.
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