Mosquito bites don’t make us appreciate mosquitoes. Around the world they are the most deadly animal. However, they have some interesting and good qualities.
Did you know some mosquitoes don’t suck blood? Sounds good, right? The problem is, most do. And of those that do, it is the female who looks for blood to get the protein needed to lay eggs.
Mosquitoes and disease:
Only 3% of known mosquito species carry diseases like malaria, dengue fever and Zika virus. That is about 100 species of 3,570 species worldwide. However, those three percent make mosquitoes the deadliest animal on earth! They kill 725,000 people a year worldwide.
In New York State (NYS), there are 70 species of mosquitoes, but only two that carry diseases:
- The northern house mosquito
- The Asian tiger mosquito – which has not yet transmitted disease to humans in NYS
The diseases are:
- West Nile Virus (WNV) (around 500 known cases in NYS since it arrived in 1999)
- Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus (EEE) (5 known cases in NYS since 1971)
- Zika Virus (only in the NYC area)
Mosquitoes and me:
I got more annoyed at mosquitoes in the summer of 2021. The relentless rain that summer gave mosquito larvae plenty of water to survive and then hatch from. Even though the nearest swampy water was a quarter mile from our yard, they were all over us when we went outside, any time of day or night.
I found out the adults often rest on tall vegetation during the day, due to the greater humidity there. As I walked through the tall vegetation I disturbed them and they realized I was a meal!
Mosquitoes and benefits:
Most gather nectar as a food source. This may be far more important than we realize. They are great pollinators, but this is not well-researched because it occurs at night. Due to how many mosquitoes are found on flowers at night, some wonder if they could be just as important for pollinating plants as the known pollinators we see during the day.
Some even milk ants for honeydew. The ant milks the aphid and the mosquito milks the ant.
Mosquitoes are a food source for birds, bats, dragonflies and other flying critters.
The Elephant mosquito (so called because of its big size), which lives in the Eastern U.S. (including NYS), has a larva that actually eats other mosquito larvae. Thirty to forty a day! As adults they don’t drink blood. Elephant mosquito larvae, as well as some other large mosquito larvae, are used to control disease carrying mosquitoes in rice paddies.
Humans aren’t always the preferred host, but due to the absence of other animals mosquitoes make due with us. They also bite other mammals, earthworms, frogs, armadillos, crocodiles, manatees and even fish!
With this information perhaps you can appreciate mosquitoes a bit more, in spite of their bite.
Here is a link to where I got my information from and more interesting facts about mosquitoes:
For mosquito-borne diseases in NYS - https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2731/