Starting from Scratch

 

I sat out in the driveway yesterday talking with my neighbor.  We discussed diets, world events, cars (the way cars once were) and all sorts of things.

For some odd reason, what I hadn’t noticed was that I was getting all sorts of mosquito bites.  They didn’t start to itch until I had been back in the house for a bit.  Then my arms itched like crazy.  I think that is what kept me awake last night.

I’ve heard of people dying from multiple bee stings, and I have heard of people getting malaria from mosquito bites, but last night I began to wonder if anyone had ever itched themselves to death.  It felt like I was on my way.  Maybe I would be the first.  I would be in the medical journals.  Z. Corwin – dying from scratch.  No, that sounds more like a cookbook.

As I write this, it is the following morning, and the itching hasn’t let up.  Those must have been the industrial strength mosquitos.  I think my days of sitting out in the driveway are over. 

I wonder how it would effect the food chain if we got rid of all mosquitoes?   Maybe I'll look it up and see if they actually do any good.  Go ahead and wait there.  I’ll be back.

 

 The short version:

Eliminating all mosquitoes would remove a major food source and ecological participant across multiple ecosystems. The immediate effect would be a collapse or stress in food chains, especially in aquatic and insect‑eating communities, because mosquito larvae and adults make up a large, reliable biomass for many predators. 

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