The deadliest animals are not lions, spiders or snakes, but the tiny mosquitoes that suck our blood, make us itchy and infect us with disease.
Mosquitoes kill around 760,000 people every year, according to research site Our World in Data, with humans ourselves coming a distant second.
This is because mosquitoes account for 17 per cent of all infectious diseases, including malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika.
And as the world warms due to human-driven climate change, mosquitoes are roaming to new areas during longer summers, raising fears they could propel future health crises.
So how can humanity fight back against our greatest foe? Is there a safe way we could eradicate these killer mosquitoes — and how bad would that be for the environment?
– #Notallmosquitoes –
First, we would not need to vanquish all mosquitoes. Out of roughly 3,500 mosquito species, only around 100 bite humans.
And just five species are responsible for roughly 95 per cent of human infections, Hilary Ranson, a vector biologist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, told AFP.
On balance, Ranson felt that losing five mosquito species “could be tolerated given the huge devastation” they inflict on the world, from mass death to crippling economic fallout.
Dan Peach, a mosquito entomologist at the University of Georgia, broadly agreed, but emphasised that more information was needed to compare eradication with the alternatives.
– What about the environment? –
The five disease-spreading mosquitoes “have evolved to be very closely associated to humans,” including
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