Mosquitoes are annoying and are cause of many problems to both human and animals. They bite, make annoying sounds near your ear while you are asleep and even more disturbing are the fact that they can transmit dangerous viruses that can cause malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile and chikungunya. But not all that are said about mosquitoes or mosquito bites are true. Here are some of the Myths and Fact about the mosquito.
Myth: The female mosquito dies after she takes a blood meal.
Fact: Mosquitoes can bite multiple times. After the female mosquito takes a blood meal she completes the development of her eggs and may deposit up to 200 eggs. Then she seek for another blood meal.
Myth: Mosquitoes can transmit HIV
Fact: No. HIV does not survive in the mosquito long enough to be transmitted in the saliva. Also mosquitoes use 2 different tubes for sucking the blood and injecting saliva. Even if a mosquito had HIV-containing blood from another human inside it, the blood would never exit the bug through its salivary glands and into your blood stream.
Myth: All mosquitoes bite humans
Fact: According to CDC, there are about 3,500 species of mosquitoes. Many of them feed on plant, some on birds, reptiles and others on mammals. Only the female mosquito bite humans to suck blood for egg production.
Myth: Lemon dish soap and Listerine repel mosquitoes
Fact: This myth was started in 2002 and has been widely spread around the Internet. Lemon dish soap or listerine are neither an effective mosquito repellent nor concoction that will cause flocks of mosquitoes to fall out of the sky dead. According to the Florida Medical Entomology Lab at the University of Florida, these products do not work to thwart mosquitoes.
Myth: Ultrasonic devices repel mosquitoes
Fact: Ultrasonic devices are said to imitate the frequency of wing beat of male mosquito or of dragonflies and they are effective in repelling mosquitoes. But a study testing 5 different ultrasonic devices against 4 mosquito species demonstrated that ultrasound in the 20-70 kHz range used by these ultrasonic devices had no effect on reorienting flight by female mosquitoes either toward or away from human subjects.
Myth: Eating garlic repels mosquitoes
Fact: According to some studies, consuming large amounts of garlic only works against vampires and bad dates but have no effect on mosquitoes.
Myth: Consuming Vitamin B repels mosquitoes
Fact: Vitamin B6 have shown some effectiveness against many blood sucking vermin like fleas, but not so much against female mosquitoes. Vitamin B works on domestic pet against fleas because it makes their blood and skin taste bad to them.
Myth: Bats are effective at controlling mosquito populations.
Fact: Bats are indiscriminate feeders and will eat any sort of insect that flies by. But they don’t concentrate on mosquitoes and very rarely have any substantial effect on mosquito populations. Bats are also notorious carriers of rabies.
Myth: Purple Martins are effective at controlling mosquito populations.
Fact: Purple Martins eat only those insects which they can catch in flight. Purple Martin diet is diverse, including flies, midges, dragonflies, damselflies, stink bugs, Japanese beetles, leaf hoppers, butterflies, moths, bees, grasshoppers, cicadas, and ballooning spiders. However they are not prodigious consumers of mosquitoes as is so often claimed.
Myth: Bug zappers are effective against mosquitoes
Fact: Bug zappers do not control mosquitoes and can reduce the populations of beneficial insects.
Myth: Citrous plant repels mosquitoes –
Fact: Citrous oil has been used widely as a mosquito repellent, the undisturbed plant itself does not release these oils and is thus not effective as a mosquito repellent.