I’m sure everyone has been blighted by a mosquito bite at some point in their lives. Whether it’s by one buzzing annoying little bugger that just doesn’t want to stop pestering you, or even a swarm of them just looking around for the next human to suck the blood out of, mosquitoes are a nuisance all around.
To make matters worse, they are vectors for disease, and have the chance of spreading things like Malaria or Yellow fever every time they bite someone, making them not just annoying, but a considerable health hazard.
In other words, mosquitoes are just not fun to be around at all.
There are other notable things about mosquitoes as well, but most of the time, we ignore them and simply swat them away. Justifiably so because of the fact that they really are dangerous pests.
So, putting away the flyswatter for a little while, mosquitoes have some interesting facts about them, especially upon closer examination. Let’s take a garner at some of them.
Female mosquitoes bite. Male mosquitoes do not.
Surprised? As it turns out, not all mosquitoes are out for blood. This means that if a mosquito lands on you and tries to bite you, then it’s guaranteed to be a female. This is because of the fact that female mosquitoes require protein found in blood for the development of their own eggs.
What of male mosquitoes then? Well, as established earlier, only females go around sucking blood like vampires. Male mosquitoes, on the other hand, feed only on plant juices such as nectar. As a result, there is no chance that a male mosquito would be able to transmit disease to a human.
Mosquitoes are known as the deadliest animals in the world.
Mosquitoes aren’t known for having the teeth of a lion, the weight of an elephant, or the stubbornness and aggression of a hippo, but what they do have is disease.
Millions of people every year are killed by diseases that are spread by mosquitoes, which kills them from the inside. Many more are afflicted with disease. Take for instance Malaria, which has infected 229 million cases worldwide in 2019. Probably not what you were expecting, especially when one’s first thought of “deadly animal” is likely nature’s most ferocious animals that enjoy baring their teeth and looking menacing at their targets.
There is current debate as to whether eradicating mosquitoes might be a good thing or not.
Huh, a debate in keeping these pests around? Don’t they just fly around, reproduce in dirty bodies of water, swarm around, and spread disease to as many people as possible?
Well, yes, that certainly is true. We established earlier that mosquitoes are pests that can pose a health risk.
But why keep them around if all they do is cause suffering? Shouldn’t we want to eradicate them from Earth to ensure that they stopped killing off humans?
Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.
The thing about mosquitoes is that they are still part of our environment. We mostly see them as pests that harass us, but what about when they aren’t around? At this time mosquitoes are likely being eaten by something else.
Yes, mosquitoes are a valuable part of the food chain, as predators such as fish, frogs, lizards, birds, bats, and even other insects gobble up mosquitoes for lunch.
However, it is also important to note that these predators don’t solely rely on mosquitoes as a food source and eat other things as well.
Still, mosquitoes are prevalent all over the world, estimates as to how many species there are can reach up to 3000. Yet only 200 of those actually bite humans.
If mosquitoes were to instantly disappear off the face of the earth, either nothing serious might happen, as other predators and prey fill in the food chain of the former position of the mosquito, or we may end up losing a significant amount of animals like fish and birds all around the world, especially those that are specialized such as the mosquitofish, which consumes the larvae of mosquitoes.
Scientists are still on the nose about this, and as such, have been speculating on their potential effects on the environment instead.
Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide, lactic acid and sweat.
Not much to say about this one, though it’s kind of gross. Female mosquitoes that are searching for their next blood meal utilize a special olfactory receptor to detect human sweat. As a result, human secretions are a good way for mosquitoes to tell that their next meal is nearby.
But even if these receptors may somehow be destroyed, mosquitoes can still find any nearby humans, so long as there is carbon dioxide in the vicinity.
Mosquitoes have a short lifespan.
… Relatively speaking, of course. A day with a mosquito in the house may seem like an eternity if it’s been bugging you all day, but in comparison to a human’s lifespan being somewhere between 70-100 years old, a mosquito’s lifespan is unbelievably short, wherein they perish after only a month or two of living.
But don’t be fooled – this is more than enough time for a female mosquito to lay many eggs, which can be somewhere between 200 to 300 eggs.
Their short lifespan becomes even shorter if they can’t find a meal. Blood is an obvious source for them, but both males and females may also choose to go for nectar to feed themselves. A mosquito who has no such food source will likely die in four days.