You might vote for the horsefly or perhaps the wasp, but for many people, the worst offender is by far the mosquito.

你可能會投給馬蠅或是黃蜂，但大部分人都認為，最惹人厭的莫過於蚊子。

The buzzing, the biting, the itching, the mosquito is one of the most commonly detested pests in the world.

嗡嗡聲、叮咬、搔癢，蚊子是這世界上最討厭的害蟲之一。

In Alaska, swarms of mosquitoes can get so thick that they actually asphyxiate caribou.

在阿拉斯加州， 密密麻麻的蚊子甚至會導致馴鹿窒息。

And mosquito-borne diseases kill millions of people every year.

蚊子傳播的疾病每年奪取超過數百萬人的性命。

The scourge that is the mosquito isn't new.

蚊子是禍害並不是什麼新鮮事。

Mosquitoes have been around for over a hundred million years and over that time have coevolved with all sorts of species, including our own.

蚊子已經在世上超過一億年，與包括人類在內的其他生物一起演化。

There are actually thousands of species of mosquitoes in the world, but they all share one insidious quality:

地球上有上千種蚊子，但它們都有一個惹人厭的共通點：

They suck blood, and they're really, really good at sucking blood.

吸血，而且它們非常擅長吸血。

Here's how they do it.

看看它們如何做到的。

After landing, a mosquito will slather some saliva onto the victim's skin, which works like an antiseptic, numbing the spot so we don't notice their attack.

蚊子著陸後會塗抹一些唾液在受害者皮膚上，就像麻醉劑一樣麻痹皮膚，讓我們不會發現被襲擊。

This is what causes the itchy, red bumps, by the way.

這也造成了紅癢的疙瘩。

Then the bug will use its serrated mandibles to carve a little hole in your skin, allowing it to probe around with its proboscis, searching for a blood vessel.

之後蚊子會用鋸齒狀的顎在你的皮膚上戳出一個小洞，好讓它的吻管鑽進皮膚尋找血管。

When it hits one, the lucky parasite can suck two to three times its weight in blood.

如果找到血管，幸運的蚊子可以吸取自身體重兩到三倍的血液。

Turns out, we don't really like that too much.

我們非常不喜歡被蚊子叮。

In fact, humans hate mosquitoes so much that we spend billions of dollars worldwide to keep them away from us.

事實上，人類痛恨蚊子到花費數十億美元，就為了驅趕它們。

From citronella candles to bug sprays to heavy-duty agricultural pesticides.

從香茅蠟燭到除蟲噴霧劑，甚至是高強度的農業殺蟲劑。

But it's not just that mosquitoes are annoying, they're also deadly.

但這是不只是因為蚊子非常惱人，它們還致命。

Mosquitoes can transmit everything from malaria to yellow fever to West Nile virus to dengue.

蚊子會傳播各種疾病，瘧疾、黃熱病、西尼羅河病毒，還有登革熱。

Over a million people worldwide die every year from mosquito-borne diseases, and that's just people.

全球至少有 100 萬人每年死於由蚊子傳播的疾病，而這數字還僅止於人類。

Horses, dogs, cats, they can all get diseases from mosquitoes too.

馬、狗和貓，都可能染上蚊子傳播的疾病。

So, if these bugs are so dastardly, why don't we just get rid of them?

那麼，既然這些蚊子如此卑鄙，為什麼我們不把它們消滅呢？

We are humans after all, and we're pretty good at getting rid of species.

畢竟人類十分擅長令物種滅絕。

Well, it's not quite so simple.

事實並非如此單純。

Getting rid of the mosquito removes a food source for lots of organisms like frogs and fish and birds.

消滅蚊子會連帶消滅很多生物的食物來源，例如：青蛙、魚、鳥。

Without them, plants would lose a pollinator.

沒有蚊子， 植物就少了一種授粉者。

But some scientists say that mosquitoes aren't actually all that important.

不過也有些科學家說，其實蚊子沒有那麼重要。

If we got rid of them, they argue, another species would simply take their place and we'd probably have far fewer deaths from malaria.

他們認為，如果消滅了蚊子，會有另一種物種輕易地取代它們的位置，而瘧疾導致死亡的人數也會大幅下降。

The problem is that nobody knows what would happen if we killed off all the mosquitoes.

問題是沒有人知道如果蚊子滅絕，到底會發生什麼事。

Something better might take their spot or perhaps something even worse.

或許會有更好的物種會取代它們，也有可能是更糟的物種取而代之。

The question is, are we willing to take that risk?

問題在於，我們是否願意冒險？