Originally posted by sonhouse
What do mosquito's bring to the table besides disease vectors?
All animals and plants in a given environment interact with the rest of the environment. Something is eating a large quantity of mosquito larvae and adults or we would have a lot more of them.
The real question is whether those animals have alternatives and whether those animals are of value to us.
I suspect that some fish, spiders and an number of other insect predators would be affected, but it is quite possible that another insect would fill the gap.
I know that mosquito's are currently found in more places than they were before due to human cities.
I also know that mosquito's have been driven extinct in many places.
Considering the heavy death toll and enormous economic impact caused by malaria, I think that the ecological impact of eliminating mosquito's would have to be enormous for us to not deliberately try to drive the mosquito extinct.