When I was young, I HATED mosquitoes. They seemed to love me and I spent many a summer covered in their bites. I had a different reaction to the bites as a child- the bite would get red, hot and swell up. They would itch so bad and I'd scratch away all summer, ripping open the bite and causing lymph to ooze out. This was an every summer/all summer affair. My parents did not want to use DEET products on us so my mother's alternative was a product by a MLM called "Skin So Soft". To this day, it's not my favorite smell since I was slathered in it often prior to going outside. I often thought mosquitoes were an unnecessary bug and wished they would all just be wiped off the Earth in one "Thanos snap" moment.
As I became an adult, I was a little smarter about heading outdoors in order to fend off mosquitoes. I used bug spray, wore longer sleeves on my clothing and made sure any standing pools of water around my property were dumped out so they did not become mosquito nurseries. Yet, the thought would still sometimes cross my mind- why are mosquitoes a thing? Can't we just figure out a way to get rid of them? Then, I decided to look into that population of bug a bit more. These bugs which annoyingly bite, draw blood and even spread serious diseases are actually very important to the environment.
According to the National Wildlife Federation (https://blog.nwf.org/2020/09/what-purpose-do-mosquitoes-serve/), mosquitoes not only perform a crucial role as pollinators, they also serve as a vital component in the food-web, "serving as important prey in both winged adult and aquatic larval form for a lot of other wildlife from dragonflies and turtles to bats and birds—including hummingbirds, which rely on small flying insects and spiders as a primary food source."
Essentially the takeaway from trying to wish into existence that these bugs not live, is that they are actually so important to the health and diet of a vast array of birds and aquatic life. Without mosquitoes, a large portion of these other animals diets would disappear, potentially having a negative effect on the larger ecosystems in which mosquitoes live. Let's just imagine mosquitoes are 100% eradicated from Earth. Nighthawks, dragonflies, hummingbirds, newts, turtles and bats (https://blog.nwf.org/2020/08/meet-the-squad-of-mosquito-eating-species/) who had consumed mosquitoes as their primary food source would now be in peril. All those species are very important to the overall circle of life in many different environments and areas globally. Can you imagine if these birds, bugs, aquatic animals and flying mammals began to disappear due to not having a major food source? Can you imagine the ripple effects their absence would now cause to ecosystems across the globe?
All of this is just to show the importance of biodiversity locally, in a particular region, on a national scale and globally. I chose to use the example of mosquitoes as a way to think through the importance of biodiversity but feel free to come up with other examples and think through the devastation their absence would cause. It's not just an issue around pesky bugs- it is an issue if certain plants disappear, if different species of animals or mammals disappear. All of it has a huge effect on those habitats and the reach of the effects is more far reaching than it might seem from the surface. So, no matter the dislike for a certain species, in my case, mosquitoes, they are important and are needed to keep a balance in the food webs of multiple environments.
Image by FotoshopTofs on Pixaby
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