![]() Insecticide spraying to kill adult mosquitoes is also widespread. Population ControlĪll mosquitoes need water to breed, so eradication and population-control efforts usually involve removal or treatment of standing water sources. They usually prefer horses, cattle, and birds. In addition, humans are actually not the first choice for most mosquitoes looking for a meal. The only silver lining to that cloud of mosquitoes in your garden is that they are a reliable source of food for thousands of animals, including birds, bats, dragonflies, and frogs. For food, both males and females eat nectar and other plant sugars. They use the blood not for their own nourishment but as a source of protein for their eggs. When biting with their proboscis, they stab two tubes into the skin: one to inject an enzyme that inhibits blood clotting the other to suck blood into their bodies. Only female mosquitoes have the mouth parts necessary for sucking blood. Mosquitoes use exhaled carbon dioxide, body odors and temperature, and movement to home in on their victims. In other cases, such as yellow fever and dengue, a virus enters the mosquito as it feeds on an infected human and is transmitted via the mosquito’s saliva to a subsequent victim. In the case of malaria, parasites attach themselves to the gut of a female mosquito and enter a host as she feeds. Mosquitoes transmit disease in a variety of ways. And Aedes mosquitoes, of which the voracious Asian tiger is a member, carry yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis. Culex mosquitoes carry encephalitis, filariasis, and the West Nile virus. They also transmit filariasis (also called elephantiasis) and encephalitis. Anopheles mosquitoes are the only species known to carry malaria. There are more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes, but the members of three bear primary responsibility for the spread of human diseases. ![]() Mosquito-borne diseases cause millions of deaths worldwide every year with a disproportionate effect on children and the elderly in developing countries. Disease Transmissionīeyond the nuisance factor, mosquitoes are carriers, or vectors, for some of humanity’s most deadly illnesses, and they are public enemy number one in the fight against global infectious disease. ![]() And in our bedrooms, the persistent, whiny hum of their buzzing wings can wake the soundest of sleepers. They have an uncanny ability to sense our murderous intentions, taking flight and disappearing milliseconds before a fatal swat. Their itchy, irritating bites and nearly ubiquitous presence can ruin a backyard barbecue or a hike in the woods. Few animals on Earth evoke the antipathy that mosquitoes do. ![]()
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