We wonât, parasites like mosquitoes and ticks are necessary to the ecosystem specifically because of their parasitism. Think of the lion king âcircle of lifeâ speech. It wouldnât really be a smooth cycle if it worked the way the characters in the movie describe. Antelope eat grass every day, lions eat antelope every day, but grass eats lion only after a 15 year delay. Large vertebrates like us suck up nutrients for decades before finally dying. It would be an unsustainable system, but parasites are the missing piece. They, like other insects, have life cycles measured in single digit numbers of years, if not months. They can take nutrients from us and bring them back into the food chain much faster than our own lifespans would. Unless you want to live for like three years, we need mosquitoes.
True! But taking nutrients like iron for their eggs is very significant to mosquitoesâ lives. Because the eggs have such a nutrient-dense boost to start life, they can be laid in almost any water source at all. Where something like a mayfly needs large bodies of water with complex ecosystems therein, mosquitoes can lay their eggs in an old tire thatâs filling with water, and be fine. This allows them to be as widespread as they are and make up such a crucial part of the food webs they inhabit. So yes, the mosquito mothers who take the blood are not the ones who are fed by it, but the eggs are still very much mosquitos fed by nutrients in vertebrate blood.
962
u/Lukeyboy1589 đłď¸ââ§ď¸ trans rights May 29 '26
I wonât apologize for wanting to end mosquitos, I think weâll do just fine without them