Is there any way to eradicate mosquitoes completely? Are they useful for anything? They're just a huge nuisance and carriers of disease, why haven't we managed to get rid of them by now?
We're apparently pretty great at making species go extinct, just not the ones we want.
And so, while humans inadvertently drive beneficial
species, from tuna to corals, to the edge of
extinction, their best efforts can't seriously threaten
an insect with few redeeming features. "They don't
occupy an unassailable niche in the environment," says
entomologist Joe Conlon, of the American Mosquito
Control Association in Jacksonville, Florida. "If we
eradicated them tomorrow, the ecosystems where they are
active will hiccup and then get on with life. Something
better or worse would take over."[1]
We're apparently pretty great at making species go extinct, just not the ones we want.