Would it be wrong to erradicate mosquitos?

[LONDONER]

Very much in the news at the moment with the Zika virus:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-3540883...a&ns_fee=0

[Pcolakuntryboy]

It's hard to say what would happen if they were wiped out, but I can see the temptation. West Nile virus is a big deal down here during the summer months, I won't even go outside late in the evening now without using insect repellent. I swear I think I may have contracted it back in 2004 when I was doing a lot of clean up after a hurricane, I went about three weeks with severe lethargy, muscle weakness, and headaches.

[LJay]

Begging to differ with the author of the article, the mosquito is not the most dangerous animal in the world. That would be the human.

And to quote an adage that is all too true. "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature."

[Insertnamehere]

Who cares, lets kill the motherfuckers.

[AlohaShannon]

Of all the things we as a species have done to this planet, I doubt eradicating mosquitos would be the worst. Personally, I hate the little mother fuckers...and flies...and cockroaches....oh god, cockroaches are disgusting! Just talking about them gives me the feeling like their crawling on me! Thanks a lot Londoner!!! GRRRRR!!!!! Hehe

[Pcolakuntryboy]

Non-native invasive insects and diseases that move in by accident (with human help) have actually done more harm to the environment. Just look at what happened to the American Chestnut tree, and now with the Emerald Ash Borer from Asia, Ash trees are next to go. Sure, other opportunistic species will move in, but it's just not the same and overall the diversity is reduced. We think we know everything nowadays about the cycle of life, but the truth is there's a lot we still don't know.

[Borg69]

As much as I hate mosquitoes, I fear what it would do to bats populations that feed off them, or fish... amphibians?

[TigerLover]

Yeah no they very clearly need to die they massively increase the risk of a pandemic. The problem is how to kill them we can't go around spraying toxic chemicals in all the still water.