No description needed. Inspired by https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-would-happen-if-every-species-of-arthropod-grew-five-times-bigger-overnight/55978 .
1 Like
• A lot of drowned mosquitoes from aquatic arthropods
• Insectivores that aren’t able to eat mosquitoes would likely suffer
• Disease might become an issue
• Quite a few niches will need to be filled again. It would be very bad for the ecosystem
3 Likes
For one thing, I would stay inside a bug net thing with bug spray in hand.
1 Like
People like me (mosquito-magnet) would be put outside as human bugstrips, to keep the rest of you safer…and given the overreaction my system has to their bites (on this, my non-native coast), I think I’d look like a gall - lumpy, swollen, red thing. 
I’m hoping this doesn’t happen!
4 Likes
I think this would have similar effects like what @insectobserver123 was saying in ‘https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-would-happen-if-all-arthropods-dissappeared-overnight/55990’, only now there would be emense swarms of mosquitoes causing more chaos.
Some plants might still get pollinated though. I think male mosquitoes pollinate.
1 Like
why are there are all these threads about arthropods disappearing or morphing all of a sudden?
do people not comprehend how diverse and widespread arthropods are? it’s very likely you have thousands of mites living on your face right now, and there might be lots more living in the dust around your house. why would anyone want to contemplate all of those turning into 10x mosquitos?
Why not? It’s fun.
Face mites! I never thought about those. 
what if all the face mites turned into deer ticks with lyme disease? it starts verging on horror pretty fast!
3 Likes
Well, given that face mites are microscopic, if they suddenly became five times bigger, they’d still be pretty much microscopic.
that’s another thread entirely, which goes to my original point in this thread.
No thank you.
Also: No thank you.
I really shouldn’t be reading this thread at 2 in the morning…
And we all thank you for it. In addition to our gratitude you shall also receive a postcard with a standardised thank-you text and the chance to be one of ten people human bugstrips to be honoured on stage with a handshake from some important person who has also held a speech about your very selfless sacrifice :P
2 Likes
One should not underestimate how much new carbon dioxide this would nearly instantly add to the atmosphere.
This paper’s abstract includes the statement that
“We found that there are ≈1 × 10^19 (twofold uncertainty range) soil arthropods on Earth, ≈95% of which are soil mites and springtails.”
A mosquito might weigh about 2.5mg. Simple arithmetic brings us to the estimate that we would end up with 10^19 * 10 * 2.5 mg = 250 billion tons of new (quickly dead) mosquitoes in the soil. The weight of the disappeared mites and springtails would be a tiny fraction of this.
Total global atmospheric CO2 is currently 37.4 billion tons. So I don’t know exactly what portion of the mass of a mosquito is carbon, but clearly just new soil mosquitoes would add enough carbon to take global warming to 12. And this doesn’t include the marine and freshwater arthropods, most of the insect and spiders in the world, the mites that live on all those insects and spiders, the mites in your sinus cavities, etc.
So my guess is that most humans would immediately die from thousands of microscopic mites turning into tens of thousands of macroscopic mosquitoes inside our faces. Any survivors who somehow didn’t have any mites would quickly asphyxiate from the enormous plumes of CO2 pouring out of the soil, oceans, etc. and all the O2 being consumed by decomposing mosquitoes. Anyone who somehow survived that would likely die, along with most other life on Earth, as the climate quickly became reminiscent of Venus’s.
Note: This all assumes that the creation of all that mass didn’t somehow create actual explosions, and similar physics concerns.
4 Likes
How much of the Carbon in a decomposing mosquito in soil actually makes it into the atmosphere?
More than enough! Because all that new mass in the same volume would greatly increase the pressure in every underground space. Not only would plenty make it into the atmosphere, but also the decomposition would suck oxygen out. And underground the decomposition would kill everything that needs O2. More dead biomass would only accelerate the change. It would be the most severe extinction event Earth has ever experienced.
Sorry, the stage part sounds even worse!
2 Likes
I don’t think I’d ever go outside again! 
1 Like
Whoa, whoa, whoa…I heard that dial only goes up to 11, and therefore there’s nothing to worry about?
2 Likes