I heard a great NPR interview this morning with David Quammen, a nature writer and defender (sort of) of mosquitoes.
While acknowledging the utter havoc disease-carrying mosquitoes cause, Quammen notes three things that may make you soften your stance – a little.
- Half of mosquitoes (the males) don’t even bite.
- The ones that do are just trying to feed their little mosquito babies. (Aw)
- Mosquitoes have effectively protected our planet’s great biodiversity by keeping humans (and our rapacious development) out of tropical rainforests.
Of course, that last point could stand some clarification. We’re currently doing a pretty good job of plowing under the globe’s rainforests, but maybe we can thank the mosquito that we haven’t already decimated them.