It all started with a walk

I like to walk around my neighborhood and the local park at night.  I invariably carry my walking stick, which I purchased at Acadia National Park.  It has a certain Maine feel.

Walking sticks provide many benefits including, balance, less strain on joints, and safety.  Through the years I have run into the occasional raccoon or opossum and feel more at ease with a stick to keep them at bay, especially if they should appear rabid.  My stick is no help at all against the most dangerous animal in the world:  the mosquito.

According to multiple sources, mosquitoes are responsible for the death of over 700,000 humans each year.  Mosquitoes are not intrinsically dangerous to humans.  For instance, there have been no reported deaths from blood loss caused by excessive mosquito bites.  Compare this with dogs, which cause death mainly by transmitting rabies, but which are capable of killing a human by biting and mauling it.

Mosquitoes are dangerous because they transmit diseases.  According to the June 2016 issue of Smithsonian magazine, of the more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, only 100 or so spread disease to humans.  Three genera are especially dangerous to humans:  anophelese (which spreads malaria), aedes (which spreads yellow fever, dengue, and the Zika virus), and culex (which spreads West Nile virus among other diseases).

The real killers are the various viruses and parasites for which mosquitoes are a vector.  Many mosquito-borne viruses and parasites are so resilient and so mutative that in many instances we have given up trying to eliminate them – it only makes them stronger.  Instead, scientists are currently considering attempting to extirpate the worst mosquito vectors.  For example, malaria can only be contracted from an anophelese mosquito.  Eliminate the anophelese and we just might eliminate malaria.  That sounds like a great idea, though there are likely many unknown, indeed unknowable, unintended consequences waiting to bite us.  (Pun, sadly, intended.)

Eliminating all mosquitoes is likely as impossible as it is undesirable.  After all, mosquitoes are a significant part of the food chain.  But we don’t need to eliminate all mosquitoes, just the worst few dozen species.  The most promising theory at this time is to alter the genetic code of males so they produce only sterile offspring.  This process won’t work quickly, but could in time eradicate an entire species.

Even the world’s greatest champion of biodiversity, E.O. Wilson thinks we should consider eliminating anophelese mosquitoes.  http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-04/why-famous-biologist-wants-eradicate-killer-mosquitoes  If we can find the right switch, he is willing to be the executioner.

In an attempt to atone for not taking Wilson’s class when I was in college, I have read several of his books through the years.  I especially recommend:  The Future of Life, Letters to a Young Scientist, Consilience, and Half-Earth.  His wit and wisdom are manifest throughout.  Here are a couple of highlights from The Future of Life:  1.  Losing 90% of an environment means losing 50% of the species contained therein, losing the last 10% eliminates the last 50% of species, and 2.  If a small animal in the wild is especially beautiful, it is likely poisonous, if it is also easy to catch, it is likely deadly.

This post has meandered from walking sticks to dangerous animals to species cleansing to E.O. Wilson.  I wish my nocturnal peregrinations were as wide-ranging.