Everyone knows how annoying and itchy mosquito bites can be and how this can be especially hard on your kids. However, it is not just the itch you need to worry about; mosquito-derived diseases can make you, your family and even your pets extremely sick. In order to help prevent mosquitoes, check out the following tips:
- Remove all sources of standing water
- Trim shrubs and keep lawn mowed
- Clear away yard debris
Only female mosquitoes actually "bite" humans. The mosquito females drink blood and the nectar of plants but the males only sip plant nectar. The female mosquito requires blood to produce eggs. Her mouthparts are made to pierce the skin and her saliva lubricates the opening, so she can efficiently suck the blood out. She finds her victims by sight and smell, and also by detecting their warmth.
Like all insects, the mosquito has a body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), a hard exoskeleton, and six long, jointed legs. Mosquitoes also have a pair of veined wings. They have a straw-like proboscis and can only eat liquids.
Mosquitoes go through four distinct stages of development during a lifetime, they undergo a complete metamorphosis; the four stages are egg, pupa, larva and adult. The full life-cycle of a mosquito takes about a month. After drinking blood, adult females lay a raft of 50 to 400 tiny white eggs in standing water or very slow-moving water. Within a week, the eggs hatch into larvae (sometimes called “wrigglers”) that breathe air through tubes, which they poke above the surface of the water. Larvae eat bits of floating organic matter and each other. Larvae molt four times as they grow; after the fourth molt, they are called “pupae”. Pupae (also called “tumblers”) also live near the surface of the water, breathing through two horn-like tubes (called siphons) on their back. Pupae don’t eat. An adult mosquito emerges from a pupae when the skin splits after a couple of days. The adult mosquito lives for only a few weeks.
The mosquito is often a carrier of diseases such as: malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis, yellow fever, West Nile & Zika virus, dog heartworm, and many others. The females can carry disease from one animal or human to another as they feed.