• Question: Would the world be better if midges didn't exist?

    Asked by to Andrei, Ekbal, Gemma, Helen, Ruth on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ekbal Hussain

      Ekbal Hussain answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      That’s a very interesting question and I actually don’t know the answer to that.

      But I do know that, if all the mosquitoes died out, the world wouldn’t be affected too much. This is because although they do get eaten by many animals mosquitoes are not the main source of food for any animal.

      But we have to be really careful about this. There may be other things that could go wrong and lots of thought and work needs to happen before we suddenly wipe out an entire species.

      Although, I must say, mosquito bites are a bother. They itch like hell don’t they?
      Ekbal

    • Photo: Helen Gath

      Helen Gath answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hi,
      Yes, as Ekbal has said, a world without mosquitos would be very nice! but we do have to be very careful. On earth, there are some species which are crucial to the food chain and our ecosystem. Take them away, and things could be very different. Others species still play a role in the environment, but it is less important. For example, the brakes in your car are crucial to it working properly, but take away the windscreen wiper and yes the car wouldn’t be quite as good, but it would still work. They are less important.

      The word ‘midge’ is a collective term for different types of flies and insects, a bit like dog is a collective for all the different species you get; spaniels, collies, doberman..etc.
      Some midges are important for helping breaking down matter, like dead plants or animal, which helps put nutrients back in the soil. These nutrients then help new plants grow.
      Other midges are notorious disease carriers, like the msoquito Ekbal talked about. Disease can be bad for a lot of people and animals.

      Either way, if we got rid of them, the owrld would be very different. Did you know that if you took the weight of the entire human population, and the biomass of all the insects, the insects would be 300 times greater? That’s kind of a bit too creepy to think about….

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