Mosquitoes: Good or Bad? A Debate
Alexis here. Aloha!
Debates will allegedly make your blog HOT so I've made one! Anna and I are going to have an online debate about whether mosquitoes are good or bad. Anna thinks mosquitoes are BAD. I think they are GOOD.
ALEXIS: I think that mosquitoes are good for the Earth because they are interwoven with this uniquely complicated food web and are just living creatures, like us. Doing the things that they do can't be worse than what we're doing (pollution, smoking, destruction of habitats, etc.).
Debates will allegedly make your blog HOT so I've made one! Anna and I are going to have an online debate about whether mosquitoes are good or bad. Anna thinks mosquitoes are BAD. I think they are GOOD.
MOSQUITOES: GOOD OR BAD
ALEXIS: I think that mosquitoes are good for the Earth because they are interwoven with this uniquely complicated food web and are just living creatures, like us. Doing the things that they do can't be worse than what we're doing (pollution, smoking, destruction of habitats, etc.).
ANNA: I know that mosquitoes are living creatures, but they can do VERY dangerous things! One of them is Zika. Zika can also be a virus or a fever. The fever can cause a fever (duh), rash, joint pain, and red eyes. You catch this by having a mosquito bite you while carrying the disease. The second type is the virus. It can damage babies while they are still in the mother's womb because it can slow the head growth and damage the brain development. The third is the updated version of the Zika virus, called Congenital Zika Syndrome. The defects that can happen to the baby in the womb if the mother is bitten by a mosquito carrying the disease are: the baby's head is smaller than expected, decreased brain tissue and brain damage, and the skull is partially collapsed. Those are my first reasons why we do not need these terrible bloodsuckers.
ALEXIS: I understand your reasons why Zika is bad, but it's not very common. About 3/4 of women bitten by a Zika-carrying mosquito have babies with no trouble and less than half of the 1/4 left have reported (usually minor) birth defects. I totally agree! Zika is bad. But did you think about how the mosquitoes are affected? It's unproven if mosquitoes' babies are affected with Zika. It's like having the flu. You don't want to affect anyone else! Now let's move the conversation off of Zika.
ANNA: So you think that the worst thing about mosquitoes is their carrying diseases. But they don't just carry diseases. They carry death. People kill about 475,000 other people per year. Snakes kill about 50,000 people, dogs (from rabies) kill about 25,000 people, and sharks and wolves kill less than 10. Mosquitoes kill 725,000 people per year. Bill Gates says about mosquitoes: [Mosquitoes] affect population patterns on a grand scale; in many malarial zones, the disease drives people inland and away from the coast, where the climate is more welcoming to mosquitoes. Go, Bill Gates!
ALEXIS: Anna, I think you are being overly dramatic. The diseases are what cause those deaths. How else do you think they kill? Why did you have to drag other animals into this? They didn't do anything wrong: mosquitoes don't either. And the worst thing about mosquitoes IS them carrying diseases! Have you thought about how many mosquitoes WE kill each year? Imagine this. Everyone kills one mosquito per year. That would be 7 BILLION dead mosquitoes. Add it up: We each kill a couple... per DAY. This is now in the tens of TRILLIONS! We freak out when somebody dies. How do you think they feel? Plus, you're giving the same answers over and over.
ANNA: Honestly, Alexis, I know in some ways, you absolutely despise mosquitoes. Whenever you see a mosquito on your arm or leg, you try to kill it. And you know it is true. You loathe mosquito bites. I know you, Alexis.
ALEXIS: Where is your reasoning? That's only personal stuff. Did you run out of info? I do not despise mosquitoes: Their blood sucking is as natural to us as eating. They need this blood for their babies. Every time you kill a mosquito, you're killing at least 10 babies along with them. When there is a mosquito on my arm or leg, I shake it so it flies away. I would never squish it because then there would be bug guts on my body. Gross. AND! I don't need to worry about mosquito bites because... I have a working remedy, which you should check out because I posted it!
ANNA: Ugh, I give up. You win.
ANNA HAS DECIDED THAT I HAVE WON!
It is unanimous.
Mosquitoes are good. Do you think so? Have your own debate at home! Trust me, it's fun!
Bye!
-Alexis
