The Deadly Mosquito

Although bears have bigger teeth and sharks have a bigger bite, and scorpions do have their sting, the most dangerous insect, or animal in the world, the one that is responsible for the most sicknesses and deaths, is the simple little mosquito.

There are, in the course of just one year, as many as a million deaths that result from malaria infection caused by mosquito bites.

The Mosquito, a deadly insect

The Mosquito is a member of the insect family Culicidae.The mosquito has scaled wings, a pair of what are called halteres, and a thin body and very long legs.The female of the species sucks the blood of other animals for her food. In order to do this, she must first inject them with something to prevent the blood from clotting.

Both male and female mosquitoes feed on nectar, but the female is the only one that typically also drinks blood. Females don’t require the blood to survive, but they do need supplements of protein and iron to give birth to their eggs. Before and during the feeding process they inject their saliva, which contains a substance that will help them to be able to continue to drink.

Unfortunately in many instances it may also carry malaria parasites as well as other diseases.

Some mosquitoes, such as the Toxorhynchites (wikipedia article) type of mosquito never drink blood at all and are also predators that will eat the larvae of those who do drink blood. In some cases they have been used to control mosquito populations of the kind that drink blood.

Mosquito biting

Female mosquitoes find the blood they need to develop their eggs by detecting the carbon dioxide and the octen from fairly long distances away.A mosquito can fly continuously for as long as four hours at about three miles per hour, and will travel up to 8 or 9 miles in a night while hunting.
Most types of mosquitoes are nocturnal or what is called crepuscular (meaning they feed in early morning or late evening) feeders.

When the daylight heat comes into play they will spend most of the day resting in a cool place such as under trees and in brush. If you disturb that brush however as in when walking through it, the mosquitoes will still bite you.

Mosquitoes are quite good at home invasion and have been known to come in through air conditioning units, very small cracks in a window or even sometimes through screens placed there to keep them out.