Planet Earth, David Attenborough and the Mosquito walk into a bar

Tonight Kent and I finished watching the Planet Earth DVD series narrated by David Attenborough. The series ends with a pretty powerful essay on saving endangered species - even those endangered species that are not as cute and endearing as those snuggly pandas. It turns out that the animals that are most necessary to save from extinction are those that come with multiple legs and that crawl in the dirt. While they may make our stomachs squemish, they are the ones that maintain the livability of ecosystems for other animals. And the power of the Planet Earth series lies in that even while your stomach is turning from looking at all those bugs with multiple legs, you are left moved and like you should personally save them from extinction.
That is, except for the mosquito. Somebody please, offer me a defense of the mosquito. Clearly, the mosquito was created on one of God's off days in his vengeful Old Testament phase. I mean, what does the mosquito do except make people miserable and spread disease? And when was the last time any body stood around at a cocktail party and somebody said, "Hey - remember the good ol' days when we used to get those really great bouts of malaria?"
Also the flea could use some explanation. In a way, fleas are cool because they can jump ridiculously high, but that doesn't make them necessary in life.