'Invasive' Mosquitos in Urban Singapore
Photo: Tomas Cole
Tomas Cole
CASE 4. 'Invasive' Mosquitos in Urban Singapore
Aedes aegypti mosquitos, originally from Africa, are a highly effective vector of dengue and zika that are increasingly making urban Singapore their home. However, large-scale technoscientific projects to eradicate this ‘invader’ in the name of public health run the risk of also catastrophically reducing biodiversity.
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To avoid undermining biodiversity, permaculture farmers in Singapore delegate the killing of mosquitoes. They cultivate biodiverse spaces where natural predators flourish and keep the mosquito population in check.
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Selected publications
Anthropologists Are Talking About Ecography
2025. Bubandt, N., Chao, S., Lien, M., Paxson, H., Virtanen, P. K., Ahlberg, K., and Cole, T. Ethnos, 1–18. https://doi-org.ezp.sub.su.se/10.1080/00141844.2025.2541773
Dealing with Biodiversity Dilemmas in Ordinary Places: The Case of Invasive and Introduced Species
2024. von Essen, E., Ahlberg, K., Cole, T., Karlsson B. G., and Maček, I. Nature and Culture 19(3): 237-45. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2024.190301
Critical Counterpoints: Human-Mosquito Relations From the Thai-Myanmar Borderlands to Singapore
2024. Cole, T. Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia (38). https://kyotoreview.org/issue-38/human-mosquito-relations-from-the-thai-myanmar-borderlands-to-singapore/
News
Mygg, människor och mikroparasiter – en kamp på gott och ont
I Myanmar försöker man bekämpa malaria genom att utrota parasiten plasmodium istället för myggorna. Singapore försöker skapa ett ekosystem som är snyggt och ofarligt, utan myggor och de sjukdomar de för med sig. Men vad händer med ekosystemet och oss människor när vi försöker kontrollera naturen och utrota en art, i detta fall myggan?
Social Anthropologists call for more complexity in biodiversity debate
Increasingly, animal and plant species are being moved, or migrating to new places as a result of climate change, trade and new infrastructure. While often referred to as ‘invasive’, the researchers behind the BIOrdinary project prefer to speak of migratory species. They want to shift the debate to focus on local contexts and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of biodiversity.
