Mosquitoe Facts

• Mosquitoes family Culicidae.
• They have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of wings called halteres, a slender body, and long legs.
• Mosquito fossils date back at least as far as 100 million years ago.
• A mosquito only weighs 1/25,000 of an ounce.
• Length varies but is rarely greater than 16 mm (0.6 inch), and weigh up to 2.5 mg (0.04 grain).
• The average life span of a female mosquito is 3 to 100 days. The male lives 10 to 20 days.
• One female mosquito may lay 100 to 300 eggs at a time and may average 1,000 to 3,000 offspring during her life span.
• Mosquito eggs can survive for more than 5 years.
• All types of mosquitoes need water to complete their life cycle.
• Male mosquitoes survive by sucking on nectar and other plant juices.
• Only female mosquitoes bite—they need the protein for their eggs.
• When they bite, they transmit viruses and parasites, making them a prime vector for West Nile virus, encephalitis, Dengue fever, malaria and a host of other diseases.
• The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito
• Before the female mosquito actually draws your blood, she might probe your skin as many as 20 times, looking for a small blood vessel to nick.
• Mosquitoes have poor eyesight but have extremely sensitive thermal receptors on the tip of their antennae to locate blood near the surface of the skin.
• A mosquito can detect a moving target at 18 ft away
• Mosquitoes rarely travel farther than 300 feet from their birthplace.
• A mosquito can fly for 1 to 4 hours continuously at up to 1–2 km/h travelling up to 10 km in a night.
• Mosquitoes are found all over the world, even in cold places like the Arctic.
• Mosquitoes prefer dark places like trees, grass and shrubs.
• Like humans, mosquitoes have food preferences—not all mosquito species bite humans, some prefer birds, horses, frogs or turtles.
• Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.
• Mosquitoes locate blood-hosts by scent, sight and heat. From 100 feet away (30 meters) mosquitoes can smell your scent, especially the carbon dioxide (CO2) you exhale.
• Mosquitoes don’t whine just to be annoying. The high-pitched sound they make, created by their rapid wing beats (of up to 500 beats per second), helps the males hone in on a mate.
• A mosquito doesn’t actually bite, it stabs - piercing your skin with its long proboscis.
• The welt that appears after a mosquito bites is an allergic reaction to the saliva that is injected into your skin to prevent your blood from clotting.
• A mosquito can drink one-and-a-half times its own weight.
• Although mosquitoes can carry and spread many dangerous diseases, they cannot transmit AIDS.

What mosquitoes are attracted to…

• dark colors, dark coloured clothing..
• lactic acid your body gives off, which comes from eating bananas and high-potassium foods.
• floral or fruity scents and fragrances.
• sweating.
• standing water.
• tall grass and weeds.
• bright lights, incandescent lights, fluorescent lights.
• carbon dioxide (CO2) you give off when you breathe.

What mosquitoes don’t like…

1. DEET Repellants. DEET is a chemical that blocks insects ability to detect the carbon dioxide we exhale. But quite unsafe for children.
2. Eat garlic. Mosquitoes (and vampires) dislike the natural skin secretion caused by garlic. If you don’t mind like smelling like a Pizza Hut bread stick, a daily dose of 1,500 mg of fresh garlic or a 15 mg capsule will do the trick.
3. Take a daily B-Complex or a 100 mg B1 (Thiamin) vitamin. It omits an odor through your skin pores, not detectable to humans, which grosses-out mosquitoes.
4. Burn herbs. Throw some sage or rosemary on the coals in your grill whenever you’re grilling outside.
5. Mosquito repelling plants. Grow or buy the kinds of plants that mosquitoes don’t like, such as: Citronella Grass, Catnip, Rosemary, Marigolds, Horsemint, Basil, Ageratum, and Agastache Cana.
6. Drink tonic water.
7. Burn Citronella candles. It irritates their feet.
8. Vanilla Extract.
9. Listerine Mouthwash. 50/50 with water or household vinegar. Spray it on yourself, doorways, tables, chairs, etc…
10. Essential oils. Spray, spritz or rub yourself with an essential oil (diluted in water or almond or olive oil) known for repelling insects, like: Citronella, Lemongrass, Lavender, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Thyme, Cajeput, Geranium, Red Cedarwood, Mugwort, Clove Flower Buds, Spearmint, Turmeric Root, Black Walnut, Wormwood and Rosemary.

Controlling Mosquitoes

There are two kinds of mosquito control: large, organized programs to reduce mosquito populations over a wide area, and actions individuals can take to control or exclude mosquitoes with respect to themselves and their own property.

• source reduction - the removal of mosquito breeding habitats.
• habitat modification - manipulating habitats to reduce breeding or access.
• biocontrol - introducing natural predators of mosquitoes.
• larvicide - using pesticides to reduce larval populations.
• adulticide - using pesticides to reduce adult populations.

So, next time you hear the buzzzzzzzzzzz….

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