{"id":1328,"date":"2008-08-13T09:16:35","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T07:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/archives\/1328"},"modified":"2008-08-19T09:02:32","modified_gmt":"2008-08-19T07:02:32","slug":"a-world-without-mosquitoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/1328","title":{"rendered":"A World Without Mosquitoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaaah, it\u2019s a wonderful thought, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I\u2019ve bitched in the past<\/a> about how much I hate mosquitoes but ugh, I\u2019m fed up.\u00a0\u00a0 I have put screens on all our windows and doors but they still manage to get in somehow.\u00a0 I think they have a secret breeding ground somewhere in my house.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m also convinced that the mosquitoes here in the Netherlands are more crafty and inventive than the ones back in Canada.<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t just that I get bitten by them, it\u2019s that I get bitten by them and have serious reactions.\u00a0 Other people get these little white bumps, look what I get!<\/p>\n

\"*@&@!<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n

\"*@&@!<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah, SO not fun.\u00a0 My arm isn\u2019t totally misshapen by the way, I just had to twist it weird to show the bite.\u00a0\u00a0 There are more but I can\u2019t be bothered to take pics of them all.\u00a0 Plus, I\u2019m sure this drives the point home.<\/p>\n

My husband thinks something else is biting me but I refuse to consider it because the first thing that comes to mind is spiders in my bed, and that makes me freak right the hell out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mosquitoes, I know it is.\u00a0 I see them flittering about my house.\u00a0\u00a0 The other night one landed on my book while I was reading in bed and I slammed the book shut so hard I startled the dog.\u00a0 I killed the bastard though!<\/p>\n

I had a look online to see if there was any information what the world would be like without them.\u00a0 Surprisingly, there hasn\u2019t been a lot of research into this topic, which I find ridiculous.\u00a0 First they should study what happens if we wipe them off the planet, then\u2026 if it\u2019s nothing bad, they should start hatching a plan to do so!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, this is one of the answers<\/a> I found to the question:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0 The situation with mosquitoes is less clear. Most people think only of the negative impact mosquitoes have through vectoring diseases of humans and animals – did you know that creatures as diverse as frogs, lizards, and birds have their own versions of mosquito-borne malaria? However, mosquitoes, both as larvae and adults, can serve as a food source for a variety of animals from birds and bats to other arthropods and birds, but none of these predators that I know of are dependent on mosquitoes as a food source. Also, both male and female (but mostly male) mosquitoes can pollinate some plants, but with the possible exception of some small bog orchids (see http:\/\/www.borealforest.org\/herbs\/herb28.htm<\/a>), I am unaware of any plant species that are dependent on mosquitoes for pollination. A world without mosquitoes therefor would not appear much different than what we see today. In my opinion, the biggest likely difference would be an\u00a0 increase in human and other mammal populations in areas currently \u2018off limits\u2019 because of mosquito-borne diseases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

AHA!\u00a0 Written proof that the world would be a better place without mosquitoes.\u00a0 Err\u2026 or maybe not.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if a larger population would make for a better earth, but for the sake of proving my point, lets just say that it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaaah, it\u2019s a wonderful thought, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I\u2019ve bitched in the past about how much I hate mosquitoes but ugh, I\u2019m fed up.\u00a0\u00a0 I have put screens on all our windows and doors but they still manage to get in somehow.\u00a0 I think they have a secret breeding ground somewhere in my house.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[150,57],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-life-in-nl","category-tantrums-rants","tag-mosquitoes","tag-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}