My hatred of mosquitos borders on irrational, yet...
Even more so than the deadly viruses and bacteria themselves, mosquitos are the deadliest animals on Earth from being the main
vector of pathogen spread. They have caused the death of more animals and humans combined than any other cause since life
began, including the several major extinction events.
(large image with trigger-y TMI for bug 'phobes)
[citation needed]
I have a hard time believing mosquitoes wiped out more species than the Permian-Triassic extinction event.
Can't find where I read it, but, do the "math"/consider the implications.
The oldest fossil mosquito found so far is 150 million years old. They must have existed long prior to that, naturally. Mosquitos are
found in every climate on Earth, including the Arctic Circle, on six continents (Antarctica has no mosquitos today, but probably did
during earlier climatic periods when it was warmer there, and when it was nearer the Equator via continental drift).
Mosquitos carry deadly parasites, viruses and bacteria. So 3,500 species (known as of today, anyway) of mosquito evolve during
150 million years at minimum, actively infecting and often killing their hosts continuously for that duration of many millions of
years, and you have an estimate that exceeds singular extinction events. Consider that just
one species of mosquito today
kills
2 million humans a year by infecting them with malaria, even while we are at war against them through anti malaria
programs world-wide. The death toll was vastly worse, prior.
So, that is one death toll caused by one disease vectored via one mosquito species to a single victim species in one year.
Consider that many more pathogens than Malaria are passed around by mosquitos to humans. Consider the numerous species of
animals besides humans that can and do die from mosquito borne illness and parasite infections every year. Multiply all of that by
at least 150 million (years).
The statement I posted from memory is nevertheless difficult to quantify; we do not know and may never be able to estimate the
amount in total non-plant, non-fungus, non-protist biomass that perished in the major extinction events, since the comparison is
versus Mosquito vectored deaths in animals.