Posted: Jan 28, 2016 1:41 pm
The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, carrying diseases that kill one million people a year. Now the Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, has been linked with thousands of babies born with brain defects in South America. Should the insects be wiped out?
There are 3,500 known species of mosquito but most of those don't bother humans at all, living off plant and fruit nectar.
It's only the females from just 6% of species that draw blood from humans - to help them develop their eggs. Of these just half carry parasites that cause human diseases. But the impact of these 100 species is devastating.
"Half of the global population is at risk of a mosquito-borne disease," says Frances Hawkes from the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich. "They have had an untold impact on human misery."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35408835
Interesting.