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Clint Bingham
Ms. Young
English 1010
5 December 2016
A World Without Mosquitos
Public opinion towards mosquitos is decidedly negative. In fact, anyone who has ever
lived in a place where mosquitos inhabit, and/or ever been bitten by a mosquito will likely detest
their existence. In fact, a study conducted in both Key West, Florida and Tucson, Arizona found,
according to Katherine L. Dickenson, of the University of Colorado Boulder Atmospheric
research department, that Nearly three quarters of respondents in both cities (74% in Tucson
and 73% in Key West) would be willing to pay $25 or more annually toward an increase in
publicly funded mosquito control effort. ( Dickenson 9). When analyzing these results, its
simple to gage public opinion towards mosquitos. Most people, three fourths in fact, are willing
to pay a portion of their hard-earned cash to their state government in order to eradicate
mosquitoes from their land.
With the act of mosquito inserting its proboscis into an organisms blood stream to feed,
comes the terrible capacity of the mosquito to transmit life threatening diseases from person to
person. In a first world country like the United States, they are simply a nuisance. But in
countries like Tanzania, mosquitos are the cause of catastrophic losses of human life. Because of
the mosquitos capacity to spread life threatening diseases, and because of their lack of an
impactful role in the food chain, the world would become a better place if mosquitos were
completely eradicated.

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Mosquitos can carry several diseases, some of which are Zika virus, and West Nile Virus,
both typically not life threatening, but the worst of which is the extremely life threatening
Malaria. Malaria kills an awful lot of people in sub Saharan African countries, like Tanzania.
One measure with which to control mosquitoes in areas like these are long lasting insecticide
treated bed nets, or LLINs. Ngum Helen Ntonifor and Serophine Veyufambom, of the
Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bamenda, and the Department of Public
Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bamenda University of Science and Technology,
respectively, conducted a study in Cameroon to determine the effectiveness of LLINs in
prevention of malaria. They studied the blood samples of 476 hospital based patients, and
administered a questionnaire to those 476 people as well as 350 people from the community.
Ntonifor writes: Result(s) obtained showed that out of the 476 hospital-based patients, 29 tested
positive for malaria giving an overall prevalence of 6.09 %. Equally, results of the questionnaire
showed that 743 (89.9 %) of the respondents owned LLINs with up to 649 (87.3 %) having been
given to them free-of-charge, and that 578 (77.8 %) were using their LLINs to sleep, even though
18.2 % of the respondents used their LLINs for other purposes, such as fishing, nursing seeds
and footfall nets (Ntonifor 1.) As illustrated by these results, LLINs are a very effective method
of preventing the spread of malaria, and should continue to be used, but are also not 100 percent
effective. This lack of effectiveness, however slight, is a problem that must be solved, either
through more effective control methods or the eradication of mosquitos altogether, because
human lives are on the line.
A separate study was conducted in Tanzania, by Majige Selemani, of the University of
Dar Es Salam, about the effects of mosquito nets (insecticide treated nets or ITNs,) on malaria
related deaths in two areas of Tanzania; Rufiji and Ifakara. Using data from health demographic

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surveillance systems (HDSS) in both respective areas, Selemani writes, The results show that an
increase of 10 % in ownership of mosquito nets at village level had an average of 5.2 % decrease
in all age malaria deaths in Rufiji HDSS and 12.1 % decrease in all age malaria deaths (IRR =
0.879, 95 % CI = 0.806, 0.959) in Ifakara HDSS. In children under 5 years, results show an
average of 5.4 % decrease of malaria deaths in Rufiji HDSS and 10 % decrease of malaria deaths
in Ifakara HDSS. (Selemani 1) These results, like those of the previous study, show that
mosquito nets are very effective at preventing untimely deaths caused by malaria-carrying
mosquitos. However, to reiterate, they are not 100 percent effective. Some would argue that
people living in these areas should simply be given better/more mosquito nets, or more antiparasite medication like Quinine. And they are correct in that those things should without a doubt
be supplied. But what if the middle man were to be cut out? What if mosquitos were eradicated
altogether, and there were no need for mosquito nets or Quinine? That is the ideal solution.
An argument against mosquito control/eradication efforts might be that mosquitos are
bound to have some important role in the ecosystem, and that without them, the natural order
would be disrupted in some way. However, scientific studies suggest that this is false. One
ecosystem that mosquitos are involved in, specifically mosquito larvae, is that of the protozoan
communities of pitcher plants. John F. Addicott, of the Department of Biological Sciences at the
University of Alberta, conducted a study regarding the effects of mosquito larvae on the
protozoan communities of pitcher plants. The hypothesis was as follows: in the presence of
predation more species will coexist in the prey community than in the absence of predation.
(Addicott 475) In this case, the mosquito larvae is the predator and the prey community consists
of ciliated and flagellated protozoans as well as rotifers. The study was conducted by observing
predator density, and the protozoan community structure in various scenarios. Whats interesting,

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and perhaps unsurprising, is that the hypothesis here was proven false. Addicott writes, The
field experiments show that for the pitcher plant system the hypothesis must be rejected: species
numbers tend to drop monotonically as predator densities increase. (Addicott 475) These results
show that the mosquito does not play a necessary or positive role in this ecosystem at all, and
that it only serves to reduce the prey population.
A different study was conducted by Matthew P. Daugherty, of the University of Notre
Dame, about another ecosystem mosquito larvae are a part of; tree holes. It sought to understand
the effectiveness of Leaf Scraping Beetle feces as a food source for mosquito larvae. Daugherty
found that, Mosquito larvae survived longer and developed to later instars in treatments with
many scirtids (and, therefore, a lot of feces) compared to treatments with few or no scirtids. This
result suggests that scirtid feces (and attached microorganisms) constitute a valuable food
resource for [mosquito larvae.] Thus, other members of tree hole communities may have
complex effects on the population growth of [mosquito larvae.] (Daugherty 181) The results of
this study further illustrate the fact that, while mosquitos do play a part in several communities,
all that they do is consume. In tree holes as well as pitcher plants, they do not play a positive role
in the ecosystem. In fact, in this case, the other members of the tree hole community only serve
to allow the mosquito population to grow, which is troubling in the face of the fact that
mosquitos are harmful to the world.
The other concern that may come with mosquito eradication efforts is that they must be a
food source for larger predators, which would also throw the natural order out of balance. But
this, also, is false. The species that is believed to be the main predator of the mosquito is the
dragonfly, along with its relative the damselfly, which both belong to the Odonata family of
insects. Derek Roberts, of the Department of Biology at Sultan Qaboos University, studied the

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reactions of mosquito larvae to the presence of dragonfly larvae in the water with them. Roberts
found that the mosquito larvae could detect the presence of dragonfly larvae and react
accordingly. Roberts says, All three mosquito species significantly increased surface filterfeeding, when a predator was present in the water (compared with controls where no predator
was present), at the expense of bottom scraping. (Roberts 28) Switching to surface feeding is
apparently a type of self-preservation behavior carried out by mosquito larvae. This shows that
dragonflies are the primary predator for mosquitos, and that mosquitos have evolved to avoid
them in a larval state.
In order to understand how dragonflies and damselflies would be affected by the
extinction of mosquitos, we can look at a study conducted by Wolf Peter Pfitzner, of the German
Mosquito Control Association, about the role of mosquitos in the diets of adult dragonflies and
damselflies in the Upper Rhine Valley of southwestern Germany. After his team examined the
guts of 41 adult dragonflies and damselflies for the remains of mosquitos, Pfitzner found that,
From a total of 41 dragonflies and damselflies, food containing remnants of mosquitoes were
only detected in 4 individuals, although there was a sufficient abundance of mosquitoes
providing potential food sources This presumptive mosquito population density should have
been sufficient as a potential food source for dragonflies (Pfitzner 9). These results show that
not even Dragonflies and Damselflies, the species commonly understood the be the predator of
the mosquito, eat enough mosquitos for them to be negatively affected in any way by their
disappearance. Even in areas densely populated with mosquitos, dragonflies and damselflies will
prioritize other, assumptively more nutritious and appealing prey over mosquitos.
The eradication of mosquitos would be no small feat. The purpose of this essay is not to
explain how it should be done, only why it should be done. But if its to be done, it needs to be

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done somewhat quickly. According to Janet Hemingway, of the Liverpool School of Tropical
Medicine, mosquitos are becoming more resistant to our modern insecticides, specifically
pyrethroids. Hemingway says, As malaria vector control has escalated across Africa, so too
have the number of reports of pyrethroid resistance in both major vector groups, Anopheles
gambiae sensu lato and Anopheles funestus (figure 2), and it is rare to find sites in Africa where
one or both these vectors do not show some resistance to pyrethroids. (Hemingway 8) This is
alarming, because it illustrates the fact that we will need to find better ways to control mosquitos
as they adapt to survive. This leads one to believe that mosquitos will continue adapting to
bypass human control methods forever. Unless, of course, they were eliminated altogether.
In conclusion, mosquitos are not beneficial to our world. They serve no purpose, other
than to live predatory lifestyles, sucking the blood of anything they can latch on to. They serve
no positive or even useful roles in the ecosystem or food chain, and not even dragonflies eat
enough of them to be negatively affected by their disappearance. Because of their capacity to
spread life threatening diseases, and because their dangerous resilience and capacity to become
stronger, and to adapt in order to bypass our control methods, mosquitos should be eradicated, by
any means necessary, as quickly as possible.

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Works Cited
Addicott, John F. "Predation and Prey Community Structure: An Experimental Study of the
Effect of Mosquito Larvae on the Protozoan Communities of Pitcher Plants." Ecological
Society of America, vol. 55, no. 3, May 1974, pp. 475-492.
Daugherty, Matthew P., and Steven A. Juliano. "Leaf Scraping Beetle Feces Are a Food Resource
for Tree Hole Mosquito Larvae." The American Midland Naturalist, Vol. 150, no. 1, July
2003, pp. 181-184.
Dickinson, Katherine L, et al. "Willingness To Pay For Mosquito Control In Key West, Florida
And Tucson, Arizona." The American Journal Of Tropical Medicine And Hygiene vol. 94,
no. 2, February 2016, pp. 775-9.
Hemingway, Janet. "Averting A Malaria Disaster: Will Insecticide Resistance Derail Malaria
Control?." Lancet, vol. 387, no. 10029, April 2016, pp. 1785-8.
Ngum Helen, Ntonifor, and Serophine Veyufambom. "Assessing The Effective Use Of Mosquito
Nets In The Prevention Of Malaria In Some Parts Of Mezam Division, Northwest Region
Cameroon." Malaria Journal, vol. 15, July 2016, pp. 1-8.
Selemani, Majige, et al. "Assessing The Effects Of Mosquito Nets On Malaria Mortality Using A
Space Time Model: A Case Study Of Rufiji And Ifakara Health And Demographic
Surveillance System Sites In Rural Tanzania." Malaria Journal, vol. 15, May 2016, pp.
1-14.

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Roberts, Derek. "Responses Of Three Species Of Mosquito Larvae To The Presence Of
Predatory Dragonfly And Damselfly Larvae." Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.
Vol. 145, no. 1, October 2012, pp. 23-29.
Pfitzner, Wolf Peter, et al. "The Role Of Mosquitoes In The Diet Of Adult Dragon And
Damselflies (Odonata)." Journal Of The American Mosquito Control Association, vol. 31
no. 2, June 2015, pp. 187-9.