What is the Unique Selling Point of a mosquito?
Fast Facts
Type: Bug
Diet: Carnivore
Average life span in the wild: 2 weeks to 6 months
Size: 0.3 to 2 cm
Weight: 2.5 mg
Group name: Swarm
Did you know?
The red bump and itching caused by a mosquito bite is
actually an allergic reaction to the mosquito’s saliva.
So with the last 7 weeks in West Africa and my personal
opinion that mosquitos were never that interested in eating me, I think the
West African mozzies missed the memo and I have had a few ‘attacks’ for want of
a better word on this trip. I could
probably say 2 really bad instances on the trip so far, where I have been
feasted on, and then the fall out the over the next 7-10 days is excruciating
at times and it made me ask some questions on why are mosquitos even on this
planet and what good are they?
The information following is what I found on the pesky
little insect and I thought I would share with you what I found as I think they
are questions we all have once we have been bitten by these insects and ask
WHY!?
Few animals on Earth evoke the antipathy that mosquitoes
do. Their itchy, irritating bites and nearly ubiquitous presence can ruin a
backyard barbecue or a hike in the woods. They have an uncanny ability to sense
our murderous intentions, taking flight and disappearing milliseconds before a
fatal swat. And in our bedrooms, the persistent, whiny hum of their buzzing
wings can wake the soundest of sleepers.
Beyond 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. Mosquito-borne
diseases cause millions of deaths worldwide every year with a disproportionate
effect on children and the elderly in developing countries.
There are more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes, but the
members of three bear primary responsibility for the spread of human diseases.
1.
Anopheles mosquitoes are the only species known
to carry malaria. They also transmit filariasis (also called elephantiasis) and
encephalitis.
2.
Culex mosquitoes carry encephalitis, filariasis,
and the West Nile virus.
3.
Aedes mosquitoes, of which the voracious Asian
tiger is a member, carry yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis.
Mosquitoes use exhaled carbon dioxide, body odors and
temperature, and movement to home in on their victims. Only female mosquitoes
have the mouth parts necessary for sucking blood. 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. They use
the blood not for their own nourishment but as a source of protein for their
eggs. For food, both males and females eat nectar and other plant sugars.
Mosquitoes transmit disease in a variety of ways. In the
case of malaria, parasites attach themselves to the gut of a female mosquito
and enter a host as she feeds. 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.
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. In addition, humans are
actually not the first choice for most mosquitoes looking for a meal. They
usually prefer horses, cattle, and birds.
All mosquitoes need water to breed, so eradication and
population-control efforts usually involve removal or treatment of standing
water sources. Insecticide spraying to kill adult mosquitoes is also
widespread. However, global efforts to stop the spread of mosquitoes are having
little effect, and many scientists think global warming will likely increase
their number and range. No wonder they
are universally hated the world over. These pesky, disease-carrying pests make
a living by sucking the blood out of just about anything that moves, including
us.
But let’s take a moment to look at things from the mosquito's
perspective – it's a pretty interesting life.
1.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth.
That's right; more deaths are associated with mosquitoes than any other animal
on the planet. Mosquitoes may carry any number of deadly diseases, including
malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. Mosquitoes also carry
heartworm, which can be lethal to your dog.
2.
Only female mosquitoes bite humans and animals;
males feed on flower nectar.
Mosquitoes mean nothing personal when they take your blood. Female mosquitoes
need protein for their eggs, and must take a blood meal in order to reproduce.
Since males don't bear the burden of producing young, they'll avoid you
completely and head for the flowers instead. And when not trying to produce
eggs, females are happy to stick to nectar, too.
3.
Some mosquitoes don't bite humans, preferring
other hosts like amphibians or birds.
Not all mosquito species feed on people. Some mosquitoes specialize on other
animals, and are no bother to us at all. Culiseta
melanura, for example, bites birds almost exclusively, and rarely bites humans.
4.
Mosquitoes fly at speeds between 1 and 1.5 miles
per hour.
That might sound fast, but in the insect world, mosquitoes are actually rather
slow. If a race were held between all the flying insects, nearly every other
contestant would beat the pokey mosquito. Butterflies, locusts, and honey bees
would all finish well ahead of the skeeter
5.
A mosquito's wings beat 300-600 times per second.
This would explain that irritating buzzing sound you hear just before a
mosquito lands on you and bites.
6.
Mosquito mates synchronize their wing beats to
perform a lover's duet.
Scientists once thought that only male mosquitoes could hear the wing beats of
their potential mates, but recent research on Aedes
aegypti mosquitoes proved females
listen for lovers, too. When the male and female meet, their buzzing synchronizes
to the same speed.
7.
Salt marsh mosquitoes may travel up to 100 miles
from their larval breeding habitat.
Most mosquitoes emerge from their watery breeding ground and stay pretty close
to home. But some, like the salt marsh mosquitoes, will fly lengthy distances
to find a suitable place to live, with all the nectar and blood they could want
to drink.
8.
All mosquitoes require water to breed. Some
species can breed in puddles left after a rainstorm.
Just a few inches of water is all it takes for a female to deposit her eggs.
Tiny mosquito larva develop quickly in bird baths, roof gutters, and old tires
dumped in vacant lots. If you want to keep mosquitoes under control around your
home, you need to be vigilant
about dumping any standing water every few days.
9.
An adult mosquito may live 5-6 months.
Few probably make it that long, given our tendency to slap them silly when they
land on us. But in the right circumstances, an adult mosquito has quite a long
life expectancy, as bugs go.
10.
Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide from 75
feet away.
Carbon dioxide, which humans and other animals produce, is the key signal to
mosquitoes that a potential blood meal is near. They've developed a keen
sensitivity to CO2 in the air. Once a female senses CO2 in the vicinity, she
flies back and forth through the CO2 plume until she locates
her victim.
So why the red bump and why the itchiness?
Most people experience some kind of skin reaction after
being bitten by a mosquito.
The pain of the bite and the red bump that follows can be tolerated, but the
persistent itching is enough to drive you crazy. Why do mosquito bites itch? Only
the female mosquito feeds on blood. Though we commonly call them mosquito
bites, she's not really biting you at all. The mosquito pierces the upper layer
of your skin with her proboscis, a straw-like mouthpart that allows her to
drink fluids. Once the proboscis breaks through the epidermis, the mosquito
uses it to search for a blood vessel in the dermal layer underneath.
When she locates a vessel, the mosquito releases some of
her saliva into the wound. Mosquito saliva contains an anti-coagulant that
keeps your blood flowing until she is finished with her meal. Now your immune system realizes something is
going on, and histamine is produced to combat the foreign substance. The
histamine reaches the area under attack, causing blood vessels there to swell.
It's the action of the histamine that causes the red bump, called a wheal. But what about the itching? When the blood
vessels expand, nerves in the area become irritated by the swelling. You feel
this irritation as an itchy sensation.
How can you stop the itch?
Most people experience a skin reaction when bitten by a mosquito.
For some, the persistent itchiness of a mosquito bite can be maddening. Scratching an insect
bite can create an opening for infection, so you really need an effective
remedy to stop the itch. So what works
will depend on the individual but below are some common ones that have been
known to help that maddening itch subside.
Spit
Tea Tree Oil
Garlic
Rubbing alcohol
Vanilla
Aloe vera
Table Salt
Clear nail polish
Lemon
Deodorant
Heat
So some questions have been answered except the why? There isn't much love lost between people and mosquitoes.
At the very least, these bloodthirsty insects are major annoyances, biting us
with a persistence that can be maddening. If insects can be credited with evil
intent, mosquitoes seem determined to wipe the human race out. As carriers of
deadly diseases, mosquitoes are the deadliest insect
on Earth. Each year, millions of people die from malaria, dengue
fever, and yellow fever after being bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito.
Mosquitoes also carry diseases that pose serious threats to livestock and pets. With all these strikes against them, it's
hard to imagine that mosquitoes fulfill any useful purpose. We forget that
mosquitoes populated this planet long before man; the oldest mosquito fossils
date back some 200 million years, to the Cretaceous period. Clearly, mosquitoes
fill an important ecological niche. So what good are mosquitoes? Mosquito larvae are, in essence,
nutrient-packed snacks for fish and other aquatic animals. Their role on the bottom of the food chain
doesn't end at the larval stage, of course. As adults, mosquitoes serve as
equally nutritious meals for birds, bats, and spiders. As much as we loathe them, mosquitoes
represent a considerable biomass of food for wildlife on the lower rungs of the
food chain. Their extinction, were it even achievable, would have an enormous
adverse effect on the entire ecosystem.
Hmmmmm well we still don’t have to like them as I try and
stay mosquito free for the remaining 3 weeks, especially since Sam had a mild
case of malaria while in Ghana. It is a
serious illness and I have seen what a mild case does and I hope I never see a
full blown case or experience it myself.
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