Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
Mosquitoes might be humanity’s greatest foe. Should we get rid of them?
The pesky insect is the deadliest animal in human history.
www.vox.com
The pesky insect is the deadliest animal in human history.
Over the course of 200,000 years, 108 billion people have lived on Earth. And nearly half, 52 billion, have been killed by mosquitoes. The impact of this disastrous insect has shaped civilization far beyond our expectations, according to historian Timothy C. Winegard, whose new book, The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, explores this lethal insect.
Since the dinosaur era, the incredibly resilient mosquito has been a carrier of malaria, yellow fever, Zika, and a slew of other diseases that have ravaged human populations, with people in Africa bearing the greatest tolls. In The Mosquito, Winegard’s fifth book, he explores not only the disastrous consequences of mosquitoes on a biological level but also the insects’ social impact, including how they have affected GDP by taking millions of people out of the workforce and steered the course of history when used as a biological weapon in wartime.
I talked to Winegard, who currently teaches history and political science at Colorado Mesa University, about what makes mosquitoes “masters of evolutionary adaptation,” if they should be eradicated, and what kind of function — if any — they serve. I also asked him the age-old question of how to avoid mosquito bites (the key, he says, has to do with our feet).
Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.