Mosquito larvae or larvae are now known to have swallowed what is called microplastic, or very small plastic pieces contained in wastewater. These plastic pieces can finally reach the food chain including human food.
Microplastic is small pieces of plastic that break down from man-made materials such as synthetic clothing, car tires and even contact lenses, which now pollute the world's oceans and rivers.
Because of its small size, this microplastic is almost invisible to ordinary eyes and difficult to collect to be destroyed. Plastic materials that can injure marine animals and are expected to pose a danger to the health of humans who eat them.
But now researchers at Reading University in the UK believe they have found evidence for the first time that microplastics can enter our ecosystem through mosquitoes and other flying animals.
The research team witnessed how mosquito larvae swallowed microplastics, which then moved into the body of adult mosquitoes. This means, other animals that eat mosquitoes at once will swallow microplastic earlier.
"The results are likely to be seen in a broader context," Amanda Callaghan, a biologist at the University of Reading, told AFP news agency.
"We only saw the mosquitoes as an example, but there are many other insects that live in water and have a larval cycle like that of a mosquito," he said.
The animals that eat the insects include several species of birds, bats and spiders, which in turn are hunted and eaten by other animals.
"Basically, this is a pollution path that we have never considered before," Callaghan said.
And this is a big problem, because plastic waste that already exists in our environment now, will continue to haunt us for a long time.
