Who loves mosquitoes? We bet there would be none who’ll raise their hands on this question. Nobody likes mosquitoes, but this doesn’t make them useless for the nature. They play an important role in various ecosystems. And wiping them off completely will do more harm than good. The scientists believe that instead of wiping them off, their ability to transmit diseases should be controlled. Mosquitoes have co-evolved with many species, so there are number of animals that rely on them for their survival. Wiping the species off can have adverse effects on our ecosystem.
"To yank (mosquitoes) out abruptly, I don't know what that does as they are a large part of the biomass in many ecosystems," Catherine Hill, Professor at the Purdue University in US state of Indiana, said in a statement.
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The more holistic way of tackling the problem is to develop a non-lethal pesticide which will only affect the biology of a mosquito, that is reducing their ability to transmit diseases, without killing them..
Hill also pointed out that when mosquitoes are in their aquatic stage, they act as a food source for various fishes and insects. During this stage, mosquitoes also serve as filter feeders, which results in organic matter being turned over, making them the excellent converters in an ecosystem.
When they are in their terrestrial stage, they serve as a food for birds, frogs, bats, salamanders, lizards and other animals. There are thousands of species of mosquitoes worldwide, and only a small percentage of them carry disease-causing bacteria.
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There is very little knowledge about mosquito species who don’t transmit disease. This renders a number of questions unanswered concerning what would happen if entire mosquitoes species are wiped out of face of Earth.
(With IANS Inputs)
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