Mosquito

During a recent holiday, Euterpe, Vivian and I paid a visit to a small local farm next to Pat Sin Leng Country Park.

My princess did have a good time. On our way back, she and I started to scratch here and there. We soon found ourselves covered with tens of mosquito bites - face, neck, forearms, legs, and, wherever you name. Euterpe was so bad that on the next morning, when she was back school, her class-mistress thought that my daughter was having chickenpox!

I asked myself: What would happen if we successfully do away with all species of mosquitoes on earth?

Alas, Isn't that what the World Health Organization trying to do? After all, this annoying group of insect is responsible for the transmission of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, and no fewer than a dozen of other infectious diseases.

In theory, the effect could be profound. To many animals, mosquitoes are delectable things to eat and they're easy to catch. The very fact that (male) mosquitoes feed on blood implies that it is a distinctly nutritious food to its predator. For example, migratory birds that nest in the tundra could drop drastically without mosquitoes as their lunch. In fact, this tiny blood-sucking bug is the primary food source of many species of insect, spider, salamander, lizard and frog, and many species of fish feed on mosquito larva.