TOP 30 MOSQUITO FUN FACTS

TOP 30 MOSQUITO FUN FACTS

1. An adult mosquito can live as long as 5 months. It may take several months for a larva to develop to the adult stage in cold water. Eggs of floodwater mosquitoes may remain dormant for several years, and hatch when they are covered with water.

2. An adult female mosquito weighs only about 1/15,000 ounce(about 2.0 milligrams).

3. An adult female mosquito consumes about 5-millionths of a liter in a single blood meal.

4. A mosquito wing beats from 300 to 600 times per second.

5. Male mosquitoes find female mosquitoes by listening to the sound of their wings beating. The males can actually identify the correct species by the pitch of the female’s wings.

6. Mosquitoes can fly about 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.

7. Most mosquitoes do not fly very far from their larval habitat, but the salt marsh mosquito migrates 75 to 100 miles over the course of its life.

8. A mosquito can smell the carbon dioxide you exhale from about 60 to 75 feet away.

9. Some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others. It is not clear why, but probably has something to do with the 300 odd chemicals produced by the skin.

10. In the interest of science, Arctic researchers uncovered their chests, arms, and legs and reported as many as 9000 mosquito bites per person, per minute. At this rate, and unprotected human would lose one half of his blood supply in approximately 2 hours.

11. Mosquitoes have been around for 100 million years.

12. The average lifespan of a female mosquito is three to one hundred days.  The male mosquito lives only ten to twenty days.

13. All mosquitoes do not feed on blood.  Only the female mosquito requires a blood meal for development of her eggs.

14. One female mosquito may lay 100 to 300 eggs at one time and may average 1,000 to 3,000 offspring during her lifespan.

15. Depending on the temperature, mosquitoes can develop from eggs to adults in four to seven days.

16. Most mosquitoes remain within 1 mile of their breeding site; however, some species may range up to 20 miles or more.

17. There are approximately 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world.

18. Riding on a airplane, a mosquito can fly many thousands of miles. Airlines spray to kill any hijacking mosquitoes, preventing species from invading other countries.

19. When a mosquito bites, it injects chemicals to prevent the blood from clotting and reduce pain. These chemicals cause irritation

20.  Mosquitoes are attracted by CO (Carbon dioxide) in our breath.  They can detect this from great distances.

21. When the female mosquito gets close, she makes a final choice using skin temperature, odor and other chemical or visual factors. If two people are outside together,one will almost always get most of the mosquito bites.

22. Some species only feed on the blood of amphibians (frogs).  Mosquitoes have been observed feeding on other insects, even other mosquitoes.

23. The minute mosquitoes in the genus Malaya wait for ants then thrust their proboscis between the mandibles (jaws) of the ant. The ant then feeds the mosquito.

24. Mosquito larvae in the genus Toxorhynchites eat other mosquito larvae and the adults of this genus have a curved proboscis to feed on nectar.

25. Forget the myth about mosquito ability to transfer AIDS virus. Once and for all the times mosquitoes are unable to infect, transfer, or deliver AIDS virus.

26. Mosquitoes are not affected by ultrasonic devices. At least ten studies in the past 15 years convincingly demonstrated that ultrasound in the range of 20-70 kHz has no repelling effect on female mosquitoes. Huge amounts of money are spent on research and development of ultrasonic devices, they are an effective marketing tool, but nonetheless none of them works as they are advertised to work.

27. Most mosquitoes remain within 1.6 - 4.8 kilometres of their breeding site. Some of them, as the Asian tiger mosquito - Aedes albopictus fly only about 90 metres away while species developing in salt marshes usually migrate 30 to 60 kilometres or even around 160 kilometres under the favorable circumstances. Wind currents are the main mean of long mosquito migrations.

28. Bird or bat species are not effective for mosquito control. Although some bird species as purple martins consume large numbers of flying insects, mosquitoes comprise no more than 0 to 3 percent of their diet. Bats are mostly opportunistic insect feeders and mosquitoes comprise less than 1 percent of bat guts. Beetles moths and wasps are the favorable meals of bats although some species-specific differences do exist.

29. Mosquitoes do not breed in tall grass. However, tall grass and other shade protected areas such as shrubs and ornamental trees with low lying branches provide mosquitoes with shelter and resting areas.

30. Breeding habitats around the home include: (1)  Discarded tires, (2) Unwashed bird baths, (3)  Clogged rain gutters, (4) Plastic wading pools, (5) Toys left outside, (6) Other water sources allowed to lie stagnant for at least four days.