Environment &Mosquitoes Bill Brieger | 22 Apr 2022 08:54 am
What do mosquitoes think of Earth Day?
On Earth Day (and hopefully throughout the year) we contemplate what humans have done to ecosystems and climate. Should mosquitoes actually think about us at all, they might be grateful for the changes that increase their breeding sites.
Deforestation and modern agricultural practices favor the Anopheles group. Expanding urbanization makes life easier for the Aedes family.
Overall warming may open up new parts of the world for mosquitoes, though hotter and drier areas left behind make mosquito propagation more difficult. These highly mobile creatures may have few complaints for now, though proposed efforts to disperse particles in the atmosphere for cooling effect and current efforts to release sterile male mosquitoes into the environment might worry people as well as mosquitoes.
Human activity has modified the environment, and mosquitoes have taken advantage where they can. Environmental efforts to beat back mosquitoes need to be thought through very carefully to avoid more unintended consequences.