There are more than 3,500 mosquito species in the world, but only a couple of species are actually harmful to our health. For instance, the Aedes aegypti spreads yellow fever and the Zika virus, while the Anopheles gambiae spreads malaria. In 2015, an estimated 429,000 people were killed by malaria around the world. What if there were no mosquitoes? USA Today writes,

One drastic change we would see: Hundreds of thousands would not die [from] malaria each year, most of which being children under five. Add to that the reduction of roughly 55,000 annual deaths reducible from dengue fever or yellow fever, for which the Aedes aegypti is the main carrier.

Bill Gates has even called mosquitoes “the deadliest animal in the world,” because of their spread of diseases to humans. If we could get rid of mosquitoes, we would only need to get rid of the ones that pose a risk to human health. No species relies solely on mosquitoes for food so the food chain would not be impacted that much and humans would not die from the diseases that mosquitoes spread to humans. Getting rid of mosquitoes is not likely to happen, but it’s worth imagining. This is a good reminder to wear mosquito repellant and to get rid of any standing water in and around your yard to avoid having breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

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