Why mosquitoes exist

Photo: Chris Farkouh. Garden Habitats , People and Wildlife , Wildlife Facts Garden for Wildlife , mosquito , mosquitoes , pesticides , pollinators , wildlife ecology , wildlife facts. Written by David Mizejewski. Recent Popular. Conservation , People and Wildlife. Students and Nature. Garden Habitats , Wildlife Facts. Wildlife Facts. Comments are closed.

Never miss a story. Sign Up Now. About Authors Archives Contact Us. National Wildlife Federation Uniting all Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world. The idea dates to , when postal inspector Robert Moon proposed adding a three-digit code to addresses; the first number referred to a region and the next two to a mail processing center. Two decades later, after mail volumes had grown exponentially, Postmaster J.

Edward Day adopted a version of that plan, adding a fourth and fifth digit designating a specific post office. The Zip code has been expanded twice: Four additional numbers indicate what side of the street, or even hallway, the destination is on. Q : Why is the Republican Party represented by an elephant and the Democratic a donkey?

Around the same time, cartoonist Thomas Nast started drawing a stumbling elephant to represent the Republican Party, once united by its abolitionist goal but struggling in the postwar years. Originally somewhat insulting, the two symbols were embraced in the early 20th century. From the point of view of birds, fishes, frogs and other animals that eat them, their purpose is to provide a source of food.

An article by Janet Fang in the July magazine Nature asked scientists what the world would be like without mosquitoes. Disease among humans would decrease, if the mosquitoes that spread malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis and other illnesses disappeared. In the Arctic tundra, mosquitoes form dense clouds when they hatch.

Birds which nest in that region might miss them as a source of food, if they disappeared. Caribou, which must deal with the onslaught of the mosquitoes, might change their paths, feeding in new places, and alter the ecosystem in localized areas of the Arctic.

Elsewhere, fish, frogs, lizards, spiders and other animals that eat mosquito larvae or adult mosquitoes would lose a food source. Mosquitoes make up a small part of the diet of some, but others, like the mosquitofish or gambusia, which specializes in eating the larvae, might become extinct.

Mosquitoes swarm in the Arctic, where their purpose seems to be to torment caribou and become food for birds, though they also pollinate some flowers. Mosquito larvae consume a lot of organic matter in wetlands, helping recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem, but other larvae and water-dwelling creatures also do the same and could take over that job.

Adult mosquitoes feed on nectar as well as blood—in fact, nectar is all the adult males eat—so some plants might suffer due to lack of pollinators if mosquitoes stopped visiting, especially northern orchids. The biggest effect, is that fewer people would die of mosquito-spread diseases, so there would be more humans on the earth, especially in countries that are already having trouble supporting their populations.

But humans would be healthier, more productive, and not have to spend so much time and effort caring for those who were sick. Insecticides kill not only mosquitoes, but other animals too. Even specially targeted natural larvicides, like those using Bti, kill a few closely related species such as black flies and gnats.

Images courtesy of the USDA.