The Zika virus made headlines last week for its oft-occurring but unproven link with microcephaly in infants. Transmitted by mosquitoes, Zika threatens tropical and subtropical countries as well as those who travel through them.

South American governments have worked to hinder the spread of Zika or mitigate its effects on newborns. Notably, El Salvador has advised women not to get pregnant until 2018 – a restrictive policy unlikely to succeed. But some scientists are working on a more novel approach.

Oxitec, a British biotechnology company, is researching an innovative technique to combat mosquito-transmitted diseases such as dengue, malaria, the West Nile virus: turning the mosquitoes against themselves.

The company is developing male mosquitoes which possess a “kill switch” gene: offspring which inherit this gene die before reaching maturity. These doctored mosquitoes would be released into indigenous mosquito populations to breed with them, causing the next generation of mosquitoes to die off.

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Derek Yen

Tests using Oxitec on sample mosquito populations have been overwhelmingly effective. A trial run in Piracicaba, Brazil “reduced wild mosquito larvae by 82 percent.” If widely employed, Oxitec’s technique could severely cripple mosquito populations and bring them to the brink of extinction.

Its success raises an interesting thought: if desired, humans could try to completely eradicate mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes and their myriad of diseases are widely feared and hated. It may seem like it could only benefit the human race to eliminate them. But such an impulsive decision might come back to bite us instead.

Bats, birds, fish and other animals feed on mosquitoes and their larvae. Eradicating mosquitoes would negatively impact all organisms which subsist on mosquitoes, thereby crippling food webs and decreasing fauna diversity.

Mosquitoes also play much more subtle roles in the environment. While moths and bees are more well-known, adult mosquitoes also feed on nectar and serve as pollinators for some plants. Mosquito larvae, which live in water, filter-feed, cleaning bodies of water of debris and bacteria.

We cannot unilaterally eliminate mosquitoes and expect the fallout to be self-contained. The eradication of mosquitoes would have a noticeable impact on global ecosystems.

Furthermore, some argue that mosquito-related diseases are not entirely bad; such diseases, and diseases in general, may have a role to play in preventing populations from reaching levels unsustainable by their environments.

For instance, as David Quammen notes, mosquitoes have “defended” areas like rainforests by making them uninhabitable to humans. If the pressure mosquitoes exert is removed, human and many other animal populations will lose a check on their growth.

Oxitec only intends to employ their technique in areas where mosquitoes are non-native species. I believe it is beneficial to eliminate mosquitoes in these areas. But we should be wary of the temptation to eliminate mosquitoes entirely.

Ultimately, the same arguments for conserving pandas, sharks or tigers can also be applied to mosquitoes. Although not endangered, mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and by removing them, we disrupt and likely destroy global food chains from the bottom-up.