develop (standing water!), you can give them fewer places to develop. If you know when they are most active (dawn and dusk), you can avoid them at their worst. And if you know what to wear and which repellents to use, you can help protect yourself from being bitten.
What diseases can mosquitoes transmit?
Quite a few of them, unfortunately. In the tropics, mosquito-borne diseases represent one of the greatest health threats, as mosquitoes transmit malaria, yellow fever, Dengue fever, and a host of other diseases. In the U.S., we’re mostly spared from the worst of these diseases, though travelers can contract them overseas, and outbreaks of some (Dengue, for instance) are not unheard of, especially in areas such as Florida and Hawaii.
Unfortunately, a number of other mosquito-borne diseases are widespread in the U.S., including West Nile virus and a number of varieties of encephalitis. Outbreaks of these diseases generally occur in the summer (when mosquitoes are more active), and there are thousands of cases each year, leading to many hospitalizations and even some deaths.
If I trap a mosquito’s proboscis and/or flex a muscle in the vicinity of the area where a mosquito lands, can I cause it to ingest too much blood and explode?
Nope. When a mosquito is filled with blood, its nervous system essentially has a “shut-off valve” that tells it to stop ingesting more blood. So if you hold the mosquito there or flex the muscle, it won’t ingest more blood. However, in what must have been a satisfying experiment, researchers have successfully severed that nerve connection, which led mosquitoes to ingest several times their capacity and eventually explode.
Can mosquitoes transmit HIV?
Thankfully, no. The HIV virus cannot survive1 in a mosquito; plus, they only ingest a very small amount of the virus.
Introduction
Mosquitoes may be the most loathed creatures in the insect world—and for good reason. They can easily make a barbecue miserable or ruin a summertime stroll. Worse yet, they transmit diseases that kill millions of people each year and cost the world economy billions of dollars.
Nonetheless, they are also a resilient, wildly diverse group of creatures, and if you take a closer look, mosquitoes are really fascinating creatures. Oh, what am I saying? They are absolutely annoying! If the opportunity presents itself, I wholly encourage you to use this book to take a few out.
That’s also the reason I wrote this book; more than anything, I want to help you—the everyday reader—avoid mosquitoes. The best way to do that is to learn about mosquitoes; that’s why this book covers everything from the basics of the mosquito’s life cycle and how mosquitoes seek out hosts, to the “Big Three” medically important types of mosquitoes and the repellents that can help keep them away. I’m also including a sampling of fun mosquito-related facts and a collection of mosquito-related superstitions that never seem to go away. (Hint: Listerine won’t get rid of mosquitoes.)
In short, I hope this book helps you laugh a little and learn a lot, but most importantly, I hope it helps you escape the worst that mosquito season has to offer.
The Basics
If you want to know how to avoid mosquitoes, you need to learn about the different types of mosquitoes found in North America, their life cycle, and perhaps most importantly, the basics about mosquito habitat and behavior. Consider this section of the book your primer to the world of the mosquito.
What Are Mosquitoes?
Mosquitoes are insects. Specifically, they are small flies in the scientific family Culicidae.
For those of you needing (a brief!) refresher on your biology: Scientists use the taxonomic system to classify and catalog life. There are eight categories, or ranks, in it. The general idea is pretty simple: the lower the rank, the more specific you get.
As you can see, just a quick look at the taxonomic system tells us a lot about mosquitoes. We can immediately see that they are insects, and more than that, they are a specific type of insect—true flies—which means that mosquitoes belong to the same order as black flies and the common housefly.
Domain—Eukaryota
Kingdom—Animalia
Phylum—Arthropoda
Class—Insecta
Order—Diptera
(true flies, including mosquitoes)
Family—Culicidae (mosquitoes)
Genus
Species
Mosquito Anatomy
All insects, including mosquitoes, have three main body parts: a head, a thorax and an abdomen. They also have three sets of legs and one or two pairs of wings.
Like other flies, mosquitoes have a number of features2 in common: they have one pair of wings, large compound eyes, mouthparts adapted for sucking (or in the case of mosquitoes, piercing), a pair of simple antennae (though mosquito antennae are often long and frilly) and a pair of (often tiny) halteres, small stump-like wing remnants that act as flight stabilizers.
At a quick glance, crane flies look like supersized mosquitoes, but the resemblance is only skin-deep. Not only do crane flies lack the mosquito’s prominent mouthparts, adult crane flies actually don’t feed at all.
Total Number of Mosquito Species Worldwide
There are over 3,500 mosquito species3 worldwide. About half of all species are endemic, which means that they are only found in one country or area. The other half is more widespread, with some species found across thousands of miles.
As mosquito populations are dependent upon heat and the presence of water, mosquitoes are dependent on geography. Generally speaking, the closer one gets to the equator, the more mosquito species you’ll find4. (Countries with large areas also tend to have more mosquito species.)
For example, Norway is home to 16 mosquito species. Brazil has over 450.
While we generally think of mosquitoes as drab pests, some mosquitoes are actually gorgeous. Perhaps the most famous example is the species Sabethes cyaneus, which is renowned for its iridescent coloration and its feather-like decorations. If you were bitten by a mosquito like that, at least you’d get a good show!
Number of Species in the Continental United States
The Continental U.S. is home to 166 mosquito species5, but the number of species per state and mosquito population density vary widely. Southern states, such as Texas (85) and Florida (80), often have more mosquito species, but not by all that much. Northern states, such as Minnesota and New Jersey,
