I am no friend of blood-feeding mosquitoes; would favor using ‘gene drive’ to extinct those 10 (20?) species. This is heretical to ecology. Approach described below lets them get blood (thus survive) but interferes with disease transmission. Novel: One vaccine to wipe out ALL mosquito-borne diseases? It’s in clinical trials | Ars Technica Are there any other vaccines based on antigenic responses to vector saliva? Real effectiveness would require low pricing. Perhaps Gates Foundation would step in after clinical testing. No guarantees at this stage, but it strikes me better than that famous 'kill everything, bioconcentrating' insecticide widely used in the past.
10 or 20 species seems not a simple question. One medical site says 40 species can transmit malaria. "Answers in Genesis" says there are 100 species of blood-feeding insects in total. I can't assert a reason why they'd be wrong about that, and insects include ticks. So it may be more than 40 and less than 100 mosquito species. I guess it's reasonable that this might not be accurately known. Total number of mosquito species globally is between 3000 and 3500. Number of humans that can tell them apart is far fewer I am sure.
Read about other mosquito-haters, and ways to extipate these flying random blood-transferers: Ecology: A world without mosquitoes : Nature News Kill All the Mosquitoes?! | Innovation | Smithsonian On the heels of Zika comes its deadlier relative, yellow fever, experts warn | Ars Technica
Thanks for sharing the links. Mosquitoes seem to have close to no redeeming qualities, even in the wide world of human pests. My infectious disease colleagues are among a fairly liberal and caring sort, but know they would lose no sleep over the loss of this genera. As much as humans despise these suckers, after reading the nature article, it's hard not to feel more for the caribou who probably have the mosquitos higher on their hit list: "Mosquitoes consume up to 300 millilitres of blood a day from each animal in a caribou herd, which are thought to select paths facing into the wind to escape the swarm." Yikes, 300 mL/day!
