I know there is the idea of saving wildlife and all creatures contribute in their respective ecosystems, but I have wondered what mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas contribute to nature other than spreading diseases that kill millions of people and animals worldwide each year. I don't want to sound ignorant, but what effect would eliminating these insects from the Earth cause?
>>2046821
>what mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas contribute to nature other than spreading diseases that kill millions of people and animals worldwide each year.
You just answered your question.
I think mosquitos provide food for animals like frogs and shit, and for underwater small predators when they're the squiggly little larvae things
otherwise I don't know senpai
>>2046821
Mosquitoes also pollinate flowers and fruit trees, so the ecosystem would tank even more.
>>2046821
lt might sounds messed up, but disease is useful for population control and can help the ecosystem stay in balance. This isn't true in all cases, but it can keep things from getting too far out of control
Something to eat apex predators.
>>2047158
>>2047241
Thank you for the answers, I guess that's as close as it gets for why they exist, I don't buy the food for small animals excuse b/c there are plenty of small insects that can be food for animals. My question was theoretically if we created something that destroyed every flea, tick, and mosquito on Earth what would happen, the pollination and disease situations to me seem like valid answers, so thanks for that.
Mosquitoes are essentially the planet's shears so it can give highly numerous species like humanity a trim every once in a while.
As much as I'd like to see the fuckers gone forever, they have a purpose and an important one at that.
They're also a reliable food source for wall geckos during the summer.
>>2046821
What do YOU contribute to nature?
>>2049064
You have no idea about how many aquatic animals need their larvae as food.
>>2049064
God I love this argument
>mosquitoes are good cause they keep pop levels down
>they mostly kill non white folks in third world countries
>third world countries have the highest population densities...
>white people have no problems with malaria because it never affects us
Would you react the same if your family had been killed my mosquitoes?
>>2047929
>plenty of small insects
Name a few that live in the water with the same density as mosquitoes?
>>2049285
this
It was once said that mosquitos could be wiped out and have no significant effect on ecosystems, but thats not really true. people thought this because there's no specific ecological nice they inhabit that isn't inhabited by other insects, but the problem is no other insects breed with such efficiency and exist in such high numbers as mosquitoes. Yeah, bats, birds, and fish and shit could turn to eating other bugs if there were no mosquitoes, but their food supply would be cut in half.
>>2049283
I don't know if you're aware of this fact, but you're on 4chan right now. Nobody on this website cares about little African girls dying of malaria instead of growing up to be rapefodder for their manfolk and churning our a dozen babies they can't feed.
>>2049263
I planted a garden once. everything died tho.
>>2049291
Most aquatic insects rely on mosquito larvae for their survival.
They're also essential for salamander larvae and many fish species.
>>2046821
i once saw one of the sise of cell phone
>>2046821
How about instead of mosquitos and ticks, we remove parasitic worms? How would the ecosystem suffer from that?
>eradicate
>open the niches up to new species
dumb and double-dumb
>>2049392
Rats everywhere
>>2049413
what species would occupy the niche mosquitoes left?
>>2050127
None.
>>2049392
depends on what worm we're talking about. most intestinal parasites aren't as big a nuisance as people think, and keep our immune systems in check too. But shit like the Guinea worm can suck a dick. thankfully that's being slowly but surely eradicated.
Mosquitoes and their larvae are a really important food source for amphibians, insects, birds, bats and others.
They also seem to protect some areas from excessive herbivore damage.
Fleas are a food source too, but not that important I guess. I don't know what kind of role ticks play but I guess they're food for something, too.
>>2050127
Maybe a fly? But it'll take some time and likely only become another mosquitoe.
>>2051813
>Maybe a fly?
Which one?
>>2046821
My favorite trout fly is a mosquito replica. Bats and birds eat them too.
I would kill them all off if I could, but it's hard to predict the unintended consequences.
>>2049283
No, but I would be really fucking pissed off if my family starved to death because half of our fruit crops go extinct due to no male mosquitoes pollinating the flowers, as well as half of our local water based ecosystems being wiped out because mosquito larvae are no longer a food source to many predators that fill key roles in the food chain.
Hell, here in the united states alone both dragonflies and crane flies would go extinct without mosquito larvae to eat. In fact, I even remember watching a documentary where they deliberately bred local dragonfly and crane fly species and flooded the marshes with them to wipe out invasive mosquito species that carried diseases brought from their shithole third world native countries.
If you dipshits don't want mosquitoes, then just fucking google a natural predator that is native to wherever the fuck you live and go make sure you and your fellow asshats aren't doing anything to hurt them or drive them off.
>>2049379
Those are crane flies, you idiot. Crane flies don't even suck blood, hell, only female mosquitoes suck blood. And that's only because they have no other way to gain the protein they need to develop eggs.
Male mosquitoes only feed off of pollen, from flowers. And therefor they are just as vital to their local ecosystems as bees are. Hell, with the way bees keep dying off en mass, pretty soon male mosquitoes will be the main pollinators for most of our crops.
