Facts About Mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes, the insects that are universally hated
the world over. These pesky, disease-carrying pests
make a living by sucking the blood out of just
about anything that moves, including us. But take a
moment to look at things from the mosquito's
perspective – it's a pretty interesting life.
1. Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth.
That's right, more deaths are associated with
mosquitoes than any other animal on the planet.
Mosquitoes may carry any number of deadly
diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, yellow
fever, and encephalitis. Mosquitoes also carry
heartworm, which can be lethal to your dog.
2. Only female mosquitoes bite humans and
animals; males feed on flower nectar. Mosquitoes
mean nothing personal when they take your blood.
Female mosquitoes need protein for their eggs, and
must take a blood meal in order to reproduce. Since
males don't bear the burden of producing young,
they'll avoid you completely and head for the
flowers instead.And when not trying to produce
eggs, females are happy to stick
to nectar, too.
3. Some mosquitoes don't bite humans, preferring
other hosts like amphibians or birds.
Not all mosquito species feed on people. Some
mosquitoes specialize on other animals, and are no
bother to us at all.
Culiseta melanura, for example, bites birds almost
exclusively, and rarely bites humans.
4. Mosquitoes fly at speeds between 1 and 1.5
miles per hour.
That might sound fast, but in the insect world,
mosquitoes are actually rather slow.If a race were
held between all the flying insects, nearly every
other contestant would beat the pokey mosquito.
Butterflies, locusts, and honey bees would all finish
well ahead of the skeeter.
5. A mosquito's wings beat 300-600 times per
second.
This would explain that irritating buzzing sound
you hear just before a mosquito lands on you and
bites.
6. Mosquito mates synchronize their wing beats to
perform a lover's duet.
Scientists once thought that only male mosquitoes
could hear the wing beats of their potential
mates,but recent research on Aedes a egypti
mosquitoes proved females listen for lovers, too.
When the male and female meet, their buzzing
synchronizes to the same speed.
7. Salt marsh mosquitoes may travel up to 100
miles from their larval breeding habitat.
Most mosquitoes emerge from their watery
breeding ground and stay pretty close to home. But
some, like the salt marsh mosquitoes, will fly
lengthy distances to find a suitable place to live,
with all the nectar and blood they could want to
drink.
8. All mosquitoes require water to breed.
Some species can breed in puddles left after a
rainstorm. Just a few inches of water is all it takes
for a
female to deposit her eggs. Tiny mosquito larva
develop quickly in bird baths, roof gutters, and old
tires dumped in vacant lots. If you want to keep
mosquitoes under control around your home, you
need to be vigilant about dumping any standing
water every few days.
9. An adult mosquito may live 5-6 months.
Few probably make it that long, given our tendency
to slap them silly when they land on us.But in the
right circumstances, an
adult mosquito has quite a long life expectancy, as
bugs go.
10. Mosquitoes can detect carbondioxide from 75
feet away.
Carbondioxide, which humans and other animals
produce, is the key signal to mosquitoes that a
potential blood meal is near. They've developed a
keen sensitivity to CO2 in the air. Once a female
senses CO2 in the vicinity, she flies back and forth
through the CO2 plume until she locates her victim.