Eradicating mosquitoes would be a great loss for humanity

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[ANTANANARIVO] The eradication of mosquitoes would be “a great loss” for biodiversity and nature, even for humanity. This is the substance of a conference organized by the Research Institute for Development (IRD) on February 17, 2024 at the French Institute of Madagascar in Antananarivo.

The two speakers, Michaël Luciano Tantely, researcher at the Pasteur Institute of Madagascar (IPM), and Diego Ayala, head of the medical entomology unit at the IPM and researcher at the IRD, advise against the eradication of these insects at the risk of creating a significant imbalance in global biodiversity, likely to affect the food chain and growth.

For example, mosquitoes in general act as pollinators like bees and ants. “They feed on the nectar of plants and, as a result, they transport pollen from one plant to another,” explains Michaël Luciano Tantely.

“Bees are incapable of entering the flowers of cocoa trees. Given their size, mosquitoes, along with ants, are the designated pollinators of these plants.

Mandianaina Andriamampianina, CNRE, Madagascar

Mandaniaina Andriamampianina, doctoral student attached to the entomology laboratory at the National Environmental Research Center (CNRE) of Madagascar, adds, emphasizing that cocoa production in particular benefits from the service provided by mosquitoes.

“According to my personal observation, bees are incapable of entering the flowers of cocoa trees. Given their size, mosquitoes, along with ants, are the designated pollinators of these plants,” she confided to SciDev.Net on the sidelines of this conference in which she took part.

At the level of the food chain, the two speakers highlight the presence of mosquito larvae in aquatic environments as food for fish, frogs, etc. “The small fish that eat the larvae are eaten by the large ones that humans eat,” insists. Michaël Luciano Tantely.

Incidentally, Diego Ayala points out that adult mosquitoes also provide meals for spiders, bats, etc.

“According to our expertise, each microbat [chauve-souris] swallows up to 500 individuals of mosquitoes per night,” confirms Andriamanana Rabearivelo, founding president of ACCE, an NGO dedicated to the protection of bats and fruit bats.

In the latter’s opinion, the disruption of this balance could cause problems arising from the disproportion between the population of bats, which also play other important ecological roles, and that of mosquitoes.

SciDev.Net also learned during this conference that on an environmental level, mosquitoes contribute to improving the drinkability of water in aquatic environments; because their larvae absorb harmful substances or algae contained in the water. “These critters are indicators of water quality,” says Mandaniaina Andriamampianina.

Ecosystem balance

Likewise, these experts indicate, these juveniles help to eliminate pesticide and insecticide residues used in agriculture and which accumulate in the lowlands.

Furthermore, indicates Diego Ayala, mosquitoes hunt for a certain time during the year the herds of herbivores which exert strong pressure on grazing areas, thus allowing the vegetation in these areas to regenerate.

Therefore, say these researchers, maintaining mosquitoes in nature, like all other animals, is necessary to ensure the balance of ecosystems even if certain species, including around 64 in Madagascar, transmit diseases to humans. dangerous.

Like malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever and other arboviruses. Diseases that kill nearly a million people every year, the majority of them in Africa.

According to scientists, mosquitoes are found in all regions of the world except Antarctica, and adults live an average of one month. It is therefore important, they say, to break contact with them to protect humans, hence the use of impregnated mosquito nets in Africa.

However, chemical control with its harmful effects on health and the environment eliminates not only mosquitoes but also other essential elements of biodiversity.

Faced with the complexity of the situation, researchers have been exploring biological control for some time now to try to control mosquito populations.

On the other hand, humans are encouraged not to live too much in the natural habitat of mosquitoes, which is the forest, in order to prevent them from coming to “annoy” them in turn…