That’s right! The Mosquito is considered the world’s deadliest Animal. Mosquitoes and the diseases they spread have been responsible for killing more people than all the wars in history combined. Even today, Mosquitoes transmitting Malaria kill 2 to 3 million people and infect another 200 million or more every year. The most dangerous mosquito is the Aedes aegypti. It alone spreads LF, Zika, dengue, yellow fever and more. Most people think mosquitoes need blood to survive. The truth is that only the female will bite and she uses the blood to produce eggs since it is high in iron and protein. Most mosquitoes are pollinators and drink nectar.
Aside from the 100 or so species that commonly spread disease to humans, there are thousands more with fascinating behaviors and gorgeous bodies that we barely understand, yet we still call for their indiscriminate eradication. Must we also evict the magnificently iridescent mosquitoes whose larvae prey on dangerous species, or the ones that pollinate flowers at night, or the single species known to risk its life to protect its eggs from harm? With the drop in bee population it would make sense to bee careful how we approach this problem. We are already manipulating the mosquito gene to produce males instead of females so they will not bite and reproduce, and also have those males infect females before they lay their eggs so they will die. We are quick to implement solutions before we have a clear understanding of the impact of those actions.
