If you choose an animal to be exterminated, I believe most people in the world will choose mosquitoes.
As the animal that kills the most people every year, mosquitoes are veritable vampires !
However, is the extinction of mosquitoes really a good thing that everyone celebrates?
Some people may think that without mosquitoes, you can sleep with the window open in the summer and no longer need to light mosquito coils.
There is no need for tens of thousands of people to die from malaria in Africa every year. The world's infectious diseases will be reduced by half simply because of the extinction of mosquitoes.
The process of mosquitoes sucking blood
Looking at it this way is indeed a good thing, but what about the entire natural world?
Mosquitoes have existed on the earth for only .17 billion years . Traces of the ancestors of modern mosquitoes have been found in the fossils of the Early Jurassic. In the movie, the setting of mosquitoes sucking the blood of dinosaurs has a scientific basis.
Human beings have only appeared on the earth for more than million years . To be more precise, it was humans who broke into the world of mosquitoes .
Maybe humans are easier prey for mosquitoes than animals in the wild.
So what kind of chain reaction will the extinction of mosquitoes cause?
Mosquitoes in amber
The huge mosquito family
What we often call mosquitoes refers to all members of the order Diptera Culicidae. There are more than 3,600 kinds of in the world, and not all of them suck blood.
There are only about 200 species of blood-sucking mosquitoes, only female .
Among the 200 species of blood-sucking mosquitoes, only about 70 to 80 species suck human blood, and the rest feed on the blood of animals.
Generally speaking, the mosquito family is not the that started out as blood-sucking. On the contrary, the blood-sucking ones are the alternative among the mosquitoes.
Some members of the mosquito family
So what do most mosquitoes eat to survive?
Mosquitoes are typical herbivorous insects . Their mouthparts can pierce the bark and suck the plant juices .
Some mosquitoes also take shortcuts and directly suck nectar, eliminating the need to dig into the skin, which is easy and fast.
In other words, most mosquitoes, both male and female, are vegetarian , only a very small number of female mosquitoes have embarked on the evil path of grinding their teeth and sucking blood .
Nectar-sucking mosquitoes
The ultimate goal of these female mosquitoes to suck blood is for their own children, so the range of blood-sucking mosquitoes can be narrowed down to pregnant certain types of female mosquitoes.
However, it is this small group of mosquitoes that drives the entire human race crazy, and almost kills the entire human race in half.
It can be seen that not every mosquito is a vampire, at least the vast majority of mosquitoes stick to their duties.
So, what is the ecological position of mosquitoes in nature?
Female mosquitoes
The ecological niche of mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are not the most dominant species in nature. They are mostly used as food for other animals.
Mosquito eggs must be laid in water, so people think that the history of mosquitoes may be even older, and should be traced back to the Carnian period .23 billion years ago.
There are many insects that lay their eggs in the water. Among them, the eggs of the dragonfly are also laid in the water. They are lifelong enemies with mosquitoes.
Dragonflies have been feeding on mosquitoes since kindergarten.
The larvae of mosquitoes are called larvae , and the larvae of dragonflies are called water flies. Some dragonflies are so ferocious that they even feed on tadpoles.
Mosquito larvae - larvae
The development speed of water flies cannot keep up with larvae, because dragonflies are incomplete metamorphosis insects and need to undergo multiple molts to become insects ; while larvae are complete metamorphosis insects .
When the dragonfly reaches adulthood, it feeds on adult mosquitoes.
Fish and tadpoles in the water will also feed on mosquito larvae. Adult mosquitoes are also food for frogs and even domestic animals such as chickens, ducks and geese.
According to statistics, mosquitoes account for 50% of a frog's lifetime diet. It can be seen that one less frog will reduce the suppression of mosquitoes a lot.
One of the natural enemies of mosquitoes-dragonflies
Some mosquitoes are also responsible for pollinating flowers because they are among the flowers.
It can be said that the position of mosquitoes in nature is still very important. If the entire mosquito family becomes extinct, then the earth's ecology will collapse directly from the bottom, which is the most terrifying thing.
Some people may ask, the ecological niche of mosquitoes in the biological world is actually not unique and can be completely replaced by other insects.
Take the matter of pollination as an example. Butterflies, bees and other insects can pollinate . Why do they focus on mosquitoes?
There are 6,000 kinds of angiosperms in this world, most of which are flowering plants that need to bear fruit and be pollinated by insects .
Mosquitoes help pollinate
This kind of cooperation has begun as early as the Cretaceous period .
The history of mosquitoes is about .17 billion or even earlier. It can be said that has its own world in the world of pollination.
This is like a company that has mainly cooperated with supplier A for many years and suddenly withdraws the supplier. The company needs time to find a new partner.
However, it is not that easy. When looking for new suppliers, what if the company goes bankrupt?
Extinction of mosquitoes also has this worry, that is, it takes some time for plants to adapt to life without mosquitoes. What if they fail to adapt?
Since there are only a few and a handful of blood-sucking mosquitoes, why do you feel that the number of mosquitoes is increasing, and all mosquitoes that humans encounter are blood-sucking?
Bees do not pollinate all flowers
The madness of mosquitoes
Most mosquitoes are away from humans . They will only have a brief relationship with humans after it rains, such as on puddles, Pondside .
After that, they go to bushes or forests and live a fasting life.
And those female mosquitoes that want to suck blood will take the initiative to approach humans. After all, humans are monks in the eyes of mosquitoes, all of them have fine skin and tender flesh.
The increase in mosquitoes is actually caused by humans to a certain extent.
Annoying mosquitoes
First of all, the extensive use of insecticides has reduced the number of mosquitoes' biggest natural enemies dragonflies .
This makes mosquitoes unscrupulous starting from kindergarten. Secondly, the number of birds and frogs has also decreased due to human activities.
After the larvae metamorphose into mosquitoes, they must mate immediately. At this time, the water surface is densely packed with mosquitoes , which is the best time for birds and frogs to hunt.
They will eat pregnant and unpregnant mosquitoes directly, but now, their number is too small to eat them.
Frogs catching mosquitoes
Finally, human commercial exchanges have caused mosquitoes to migrate following the flow of goods, causing some mosquitoes that do not belong to the place to become invasive species .
The most typical one is what we often call the "flower mosquito" - Aedes albopictus . It is native to Southeast Asia. With commercial transportation, it came to the entire East Asia , and then spread to North and South America, and even Africa.
Scientists have also found that global warming also helps the reproduction of mosquitoes, which has led to the emergence of mosquitoes in some high latitude areas where there were no mosquitoes before.
Mosquitoes are multiplying like crazy, Dengue fever, , malaria and other diseases are likely to make a comeback.
Therefore, it is urgent to eliminate mosquitoes.Since the ecological niche of mosquitoes is very important, it is not necessary to exterminate all types of mosquitoes, but to specifically target a few types of mosquitoes that suck human blood.
Flower Mosquito - Aedes albopictus
Mosquito Control Plan
Although people talk about the extinction of mosquitoes, it is very difficult to really eliminate one of them.
The number of mosquitoes is beyond people's imagination, and distribution is very uneven , which makes it difficult for people to catch them all in one go.
After mating once, the female mosquito can never mate again for life. She only needs to lay eggs once a week.
Some people think that killing a blood-sucking mosquito means killing the female mosquito and her child. In fact, it is possible that the female mosquito has given birth several times.
The Life of a Mosquito
Mosquitoes are so small that it is difficult for humans to detect them. By the time they are discovered, they have already been bitten several times.
mosquito itself is not toxic , people often say that poisonous mosquito does not contain toxin .
When mosquitoes suck blood, they will spit out some of their own "slobber", which contains anti-coagulant molecules to prevent the bite wound from healing so that it can quickly suck blood.
This kind of "saliva" is acidic and contains formic acid . Different mosquitoes have different acidity, and different people have different reactions to formic acid, which is what we often call sensitivity .
The mosquito bites
The mosquito bites are actually not poisoning , but the allergic reaction of human skin to mosquito "slobber" .
The more sensitive your skin is, the easier it is to develop large mosquito bites, which may even leave red and swollen scars.
If you want relief, after being bitten by a mosquito, use alkaline substances to apply , such as soap, etc.
The real harm of mosquitoes is not its little bit of "slobber", but that it will be parasitized by some bacteria or viruses.
How to repel mosquitoes
Mosquitoes like dark and moist places, which helps them lay eggs, but this is also a breeding ground for germs.
Then mosquitoes will carry Plasmodium , dengue virus and so on.
When mosquitoes suck blood and spit out "slobber", they inject these pathogens into the human body, causing human infection.
Considering that all blood-sucking mosquitoes are female, scientists plan to let these mosquitoes give birth to only male artificially control the number of male and female mosquitoes . There is only a little progress so far.
Mosquitoes and some of the diseases they carry
Therefore, there is still a long way to go in the future mosquito eradication program.
