The loathsome, lethal mosquito - Rose Eveleth

What's the worst bug on the planet?

You might vote for the horsefly or perhaps the wasp,

but for many people,

the worst offender is by far the mosquito.

The buzzing, the biting,

the itching,

the mosquito is one of the most commonly detested pests in the world.

In Alaska, swarms of mosquitos can get so thick

that they actually asphyxiate caribou.

And mosquito-borne diseases kill millions of people every year.

The scourge that is the mosquito isn't new.

Mosquitoes have been around for over a hundred million years

and over that time have coevolved with all sorts of species,

including our own.

There are actually thousands of species of mosquitos in the world,

but they all share one insidious quality:

they suck blood,

and they're really, really good at sucking blood.

Here's how they do it.

After landing, a mosquito will slather

some saliva onto the victim's skin, which works like an antiseptic,

numbing the spot so we don't notice their attack.

This is what causes the itchy, red bumps, by the way.

Then the bug will use its serrated mandibles

to carve a little hole in your skin,

allowing it to probe around with its proboscis,

searching for a blood vessel.

When it hits one, the lucky parasite can suck

two to three times its weight in blood.

Turns out we don't really like that too much.

In fact, humans hate mosquitos so much

that we spend billions of dollars worldwide

to keep them away from us --

from citronella candles

to bug sprays to heavy-duty agricultural pesticides.

But it's not just that mosquitos are annoying,

they're also deadly.

Mosquitos can transmit everything from malaria to yellow fever

to West Nile virus to dengue.

Over a million people worldwide

die every year from mosquito-borne diseases,

and that's just people.

Horses, dogs, cats,

they can all get diseases from mosquitoes too.

So, if these bugs are so dastardly, why don't we just get rid of them?

We are humans after all,

and we're pretty good at getting rid of species.

Well, it's not quite so simple.

Getting rid of the mosquito removes a food source

for lots of organisms, like frogs and fish and birds.

Without them, plants would lose a pollinator.

But some scientists say

that mosquitos aren't actually all that important.

If we got rid of them, they argue,

another species would simply take their place

and we'd probably have far fewer deaths from malaria.

The problem is that nobody knows what would happen

if we killed off all the mosquitos.

Something better might take their spot

or perhaps something even worse.

The question is, are we willing to take that risk?

(Buzzing)