What if we killed all the mosquitos, “the deadliest animals in the world”?
Mosquitoes are, as Bill Gates said, probably “the deadliest animals in the world” for their never-ending spreading of deadly diseases like malaria, which killed nearly 429,000 in 2015 alone. According to the World Health Organization Half the world lives at risk of the disease. But what if we killed them all?
More than 3,500 mosquitos species are in the world but only a few affect our health. The one that carries malaria is Anopheles gambiae. The Aedes aegypti came to the U.S. aboard slave ships, spreading yellow fever and, as seen last year, Zika.
According to Cameron Webb, an etymologist at the University of Sydney, we don’t need to end all mosquitoes to reduce mosquito-related deaths.
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Mosquitoes act as a key food source for fish, birds, lizards, frogs and bats and other animals. Yet no species relies solely on them, other insects could flourish in their place. Neither mosquito pollination isn’t critical to any plants humans rely on.
But if we killed all mosquitos, we would see one drastic change: dundreds of thousands would not die malaria each year anymore, most of which being children under five. Moreover, we would see the reduction of roughly 55,000 annual deaths reducible from dengue fever or yellow fever.
British researchers developed genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that self-destruct, though the process is expensive and, most important, uncertain.
“Global elimination of an entire species, I think, is a little far-fetched. I think they have a good chance of reducing local populations, maybe even eradicating a species in a locality,” said Steven Juliano, an Illinois State University ecologist, cited by First Coast News.
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