Scientists debate if the world would be better off without mosquitos

With some predicting the outbreak of the Zika virus could be bigger than the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa, experts are calling for more extreme ways of dealing with the mosquitos spreading the disease.

The threat posed by the Zika virus has become so severe that Mike Turner, head of department of infection and immunobiology at global charity Wellcome Trust, is calling for the use of DDT – a substance banned in most countries to both a high health and environmental risk – to eradicate the mosquito population.

However, Turner's demand for blood (boom-tish) is neither new nor isolated.

As far back as 2010, medical entomologist Carlos Brisola Marcondes told Nature.com that a world without the mosquito would undoubtedly "more secure for [mankind]". And an insect ecologist at Illinois State University, Steven Juliano, went so far to suggest it would be "difficult to see what the downside would be to removal, except for collateral damage".

Humans are no stranger to killing off entire species. In fact, since 1900 more than 50 known species of animal have been declared extinct, due to either human hunting or habitat destruction and climate change.

So really, how bad can one more be?

It's not like the mozzie has done anything to endear itself to anyone.

At their best, mosquitos are a minor annoyance that disrupt a good night's sleep and turn outdoor events into self-slapping matches. But at their worst, they're couriers of deadly diseases such as Ross River Virus, malaria and dengue fever, making this tiny psychopomp responsible for more human deaths per year than any other animal besides other humans.

But Dr Nigel Beebe, from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, points out that this kind of approach is akin to shooting the messenger, and doesn't actually kill the cause.

"Zika and the other viruses aren't actually caused by mosquitos," he tells ninemsn Pickle.

"They're caused by pathogens that the mosquitos carry. And of the 4000 varieties of mosquitos, only a tiny percent of these actually carry those pathogens."

Hard to believe when you're swinging blind right hooks at your own face in the middle of the night during summer, but true. The majority of mosquitos actually feed off plant and fruit nectar.

Only 6 percent of all mosquitos actually draw blood from humans (which is how Zika, dengue, Ross River and their kind are spread) and of that 6 percent, it's only the females who do the drinking.

So you could say that eradicating all mosquitos to kill just a tiny few is akin to setting fire to your house because you found a spider in the cupboard – an overreaction. (One which, incidentally, we totally understand).

But Beebe's not a total pacifist when it comes to finding an effective solution to dealing with these flying hypodermic needles. According to him, completely killing off mosquitos in cities and other industrial zones isn't an ethical issue because they don't belong there to begin with.

"Mosquitos are an introduced species to urban areas," explains Beebe.

"So when it comes to rapidly spreading viruses such as Zika and dengue – these are being driven by exotic invasive species who have taken advantage of a landscape that is welcoming to the way they breed and proliferate.

"Not the mosquitos' fault, but this does mean that their removal is no longer an ethical one but an environmental one".

Scientists, however, have been working hard to create ways of dealing with problematic mosquitos that won't damage local ecosystems.

This has included sterilising the males of those species who carry the virus in an attempt to breed them out; genetic modification to make mosquitos immune to the deadly pathogens, mitigating their ability to spread them; and tracking harmful mosquitoes with acoustic devices.

Interestingly, while the cultural acceptance of meddling around with an animal's DNA still ruffles feathers within both humane and scientific communities, it also remains one of the most effective and gentle ways of preventing mosquito-born diseases.

Roughly 3 million of these modified mosquitos were released on a specified site in the Cayman Islands between 2009 and 2010 by British biotech company Oxitech. According to Oxitech, researchers reported a 96 percent reduction in mosquitoes compared to nearby areas. A trial currently taking place on a site in Brazil has reduced the numbers by 92 percent.

But while these advances are clearly working towards developing more sustainable (and ethical) methods of controlling the ways Zika and other viruses are spread, implementing them in economically poorer countries remains an issue.

"We eradicated malaria so easily because we had the infrastructure," says Beebe.

"All these elegant technologies are being developed that can effectively deal with mosquitos but it takes finances and infrastructure to implement them".