Nov
14
Facts About Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes have been known to be one of the most common pests that directly affect humans. In fact, they have been known to cause the spread of a variety of diseases as potential carriers that help transmit such infections from one person to another.
Recently, mosquitoes have been found to help the spread of West Nile virus among the human population in North America. This goes to show just how a threat these insects pose on humans. Here are some facts that you might want to know about mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes have been known to be carrier agents of various disease causing viruses and parasites that can infect humans. They can transmit these infections from person to person without catching the disease themselves.
This happens when a mosquito bites an infected person and carries the virus or parasite as it sucks the blood. When the mosquito then turns to bite an uninfected person, traces of the virus from the infected blood might find its way into the uninfected victim and the disease is spread from person to person.
Another interesting fact about mosquitoes is that it is only the female of the species that bite humans. The female mosquitoes require blood from humans or animals in order to nourish and produce their eggs. They usually use the proteins in the blood meal in order to produce eggs.
Depending on the type of mosquito species, females are able to lay from 100 to as much as 300 eggs at a time. Female mosquitoes can average laying about 1,000 to 3,000 during their lifespan. This can be an incredible fact considering that the average female mosquito may have a lifespan lasting only from three to as long as a hundred days.
It is a disturbing fact that diseases that are spread by mosquitoes kill more people worldwide than any other disease causing factor. Their rapid increase in numbers can further complicate this problem. Depending on the temperature, mosquitoes can develop from egg to a full-grown adult in as little as four to seven days.
Most mosquitoes do not see well and may not be able to distinguish objects 10 meters away. When they approach humans within ten feet, they make use of their sensitive thermal receptors at the tip of their antennae in order to locate blood near the surface of the skin. Their thermal receptors become even more sensitive when the humidity is high.
There are over 2,700 species of mosquitoes known worldwide, with a majority of them found in tropical and temperate regions of the world. Although they thrive mostly on such areas, there are other species that have been known to live even in the cold Arctic regions on earth.
In North America, there have been over 170 species of mosquitoes known to thrive with several other species that have been accidentally introduced in the area from different parts of the world.