15 interesting facts about mosquitoes that will surprise you

Description

There are a large number of varieties of these insects, which determine their habitat and methods of reproduction. In nature there are a number of dangerous species and absolutely harmless ones. Typically found in wet and warm habitats.

Mosquitoes belong to the family of dipteran insects. In their structure they have a subgroup, which is also divided into subspecies.

An important condition for the existence of all types of mosquitoes is the proximity of water. They cannot survive in dry areas. The most optimal habitat is swamps, rivers, lakes, characterized by damp soil and warm temperatures. The number of mosquito populations is determined by external conditions of existence. Dry areas and frosts are detrimental to mosquitoes.

Types of mosquitoes

Common mosquito (squeaker)

This type of mosquito is the most common. They are not picky, can bite anyone they come across, and are terribly annoying. After squeaking mosquito vinegar, very bad consequences are observed, such as a feeling of itching, burning and inflammation. The most susceptible to bites are children, who can scratch the bite sites, thereby increasing the unpleasant consequences.

An adult mosquito reaches a length of about 6-8 mm. Only females suck blood; males feed on plants. These individuals can transmit viral and infectious diseases to humans through their bite. They prefer moist habitats.

Mosquito "Long-legged"

Another name is Karamor. Distributed in humid environments, swampy areas, forest thickets, green spaces near water.

An adult mosquito grows up to 5-8 cm. It is often confused with the so-called malaria mosquito, which is not true. The centipede mosquito is the largest of its relatives in the world, however, it is harmless to humans. It feeds on juices from plants. Mosquito larvae cause harm to agriculture because... devours shoots in large quantities.

Malaria mosquitoes

Another name is anopheles. It is very dangerous for humans, capable of transmitting diseases such as malaria and plasmodium, as well as many parasites. It is distinguished by its small size, its main feature is the increased length of the hind legs. They live mainly near a body of water, where they reproduce by laying eggs in a humid environment.

Biting mosquito with two stripes

Lives everywhere except Antarctica. A distinctive feature is its small size and white stripes on the limbs and throughout the body. It reproduces by laying eggs in marshy areas. Carries deadly diseases.

Winter mosquitoes

They are large in size, up to 3 cm, and prefer to eat decomposed plants. They do not suck blood, which means they do not transmit diseases. Active throughout the year, including in winter. In frosty sunny weather, you can observe a flock of these mosquitoes. They live in a cave, a mine, or a hollow tree. Body length up to 15 – 18 mm.

Meadow mosquito

Representatives of this species are relatives of the centipede mosquito.

The basis of the diet is plant nectar, human and animal blood. The sizes are identical to those of common mosquitoes. They live in humid environments. The mosquito larva eats algae and other plants. It can be found in the meadow, in the field.

Mosquito Dergun

It has two names, dergun and zvonets. Makes a loud ringing noise and its front legs twitch constantly. These facts explain the validity of both names.

The dense thickets of the reservoir are its habitat. They feed on plants and do not suck blood. The color is dark brown, this individual is distinguished by the presence of long legs. The mosquito itself can be orange, gray or yellow, the color of the abdomen is green. They can live in packs. There are about 10 thousand varieties living in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

Tiger mosquito

It lives in Asia and is extremely dangerous. They transmit malaria, typhoid, dengue fever, and Zika virus to humans. It can be found in tropical areas where there are no people. Externally it is distinguished by its small size and black and white wings.

The female is almost twice the size of the male. Distinctive features are dark color with white markings. They live in damp, swampy forests. About 5 generations are hatched per season. They live from two weeks to one month. The female can hatch two hundred eggs at a time.

Butterfly

This type of mosquito is distinguished by its fluffy cover, up to 2 cm long. It cannot be found in Russia, its habitat is Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and America. Very dangerous for humans, because spread fever, aggravated by intestinal bleeding and high body temperature.

The butterfly mosquito can climb into the hole of rodents; it jumps well. Like all mosquito species, the male drinks nectar and the female drinks plasma. The larva settles in damp soil, in animal feces. They can gather in large groups. The distinctive color is grey.

Gall midges

There are up to 2 thousand species of such mosquitoes. This is a small, harmless creature, safe for humans. Unlike other species, they do not bite either humans or animals.

An adult lives for about 72 hours.

Thick proboscis mosquito

The adult does not drink blood, preferring nectar. However, a larva living in a reservoir can prey on crustaceans and even baby insects. She uses her proboscis to kill her prey.

What do all mosquitoes have in common?

Mosquitoes are dipteran arthropods. The body, wings and long legs are covered with thin scales. Some species of mosquitoes can reach 8 cm in length, but more often adults do not exceed 15 mm. The mosquito has a small head with mosaic eyes and an abdomen consisting of 10 segments. When saturated with blood, the abdomen swells, it is translucent, so it turns brown or red. The oral apparatus is a proboscis with jaws and teeth.

Females are noticeably larger than males. Only females are bloodsuckers, and males feed on plant sap. The life cycle of different types of mosquitoes ranges from several days to a couple of months. During her life, the female lays about 200 eggs. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in moist soil or on the surface of water. A few days later (before larvae appear from the eggs, which after molting turn into adults. In cold weather, the development cycle may slow down, then the larva does not emerge from the egg after a couple of days, but can linger at this stage for up to three weeks. The last batch of pupae is formed in the fall and remains to winter in this state, in the spring they turn into adults, and the life cycle continues.

An indispensable condition for the life of any species of mosquitoes is the proximity of bodies of water. They do not live in arid climates. A swampy area that is warm and damp is considered ideal for any mosquito. The size of the mosquito population depends on external conditions. During drought or frost they die.

Habitats

Almost all mosquitoes prefer warm, humid environments, including the tropics. However, we will never meet them in the Arctic and Antarctica.

The most dangerous individuals for humans live in India, Thailand, China and South America. To visit these countries, tourists are recommended to be vaccinated.

A lot of mosquitoes can be found in Thailand. Mostly malarial, tiger and centipede mosquitoes live there. Before visiting the country, it is recommended to get vaccinated.

The so-called “Crimean” mosquito lives in Crimea, settles in basements, and is capable of carrying dangerous infections.

The most popular mosquito in the world is the common mosquito. It can be found wherever people live, because... human plasma is its main source of nutrients necessary for reproduction.

Notes[ | ]

1. Pavlovsky E. N.
   Methods for studying blood-sucking mosquitoes (Culicidae). - M.-L.: Publishing house. Academy of Sciences, 1935. - 176 p.
2. Sharkov A. A.
   Blood-sucking mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) of the Murmansk region / Executive editor A. S. Lutta. - Petro, 1980. - 96 p.
3. Kukharchuk L.P.
   Ecology of blood-sucking mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) of Siberia. - Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1981. - 232 p.
4. Nikolaeva N.V.
   Ecology of larvae of blood-sucking mosquitoes in Southern Yamal. - Sverdlovsk: Ural Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1980. - 67 p.
5. Vinogradova E. B., Karpova S. G.
   Seasonal and daily rhythms of blood-sucking mosquitoes. - St. Petersburg: Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2010. - 238 p. — ISBN 978-5-98092-092-6.
6. Nekrasova L. S., Vigorov Yu. L.
   Species features of population and biocenotic reactions of blood-sucking mosquitoes / Executive editor V. D. Bogdanov. - Ekaterinburg: Goschinsky, 2011. - 144 p. — ISBN 978-5-98829-027-8.
7. Life of animals. Volume 3. Arthropods: trilobites, chelicerates, trachea-breathers. Onychophora / ed. M. S. Gilyarova, F. N. Pravdina, ch. ed. V. E. Sokolov. — 2nd ed. - M.: Education, 1984. - P. 394. - 463 p.
8. ↑ 1 2 Wilkerson RC, Linton Y.-M., Fonseca DM, Schultz TR, Price DC, Strickman DA
   Making Mosquito Taxonomy Useful: A Stable Classification of Tribe Aedini that Balances Utility with Current Knowledge of Evolutionary Relationships (English) // PLOS One: Magazine. - Public Library of Science, 2015. - 30 July (vol. 10, no. 7). - P. e0133602. — ISSN 1932-6203. - doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133602.
9. Gornostaeva R. M., Danilov A. V.
   Mosquitoes of Moscow and the Moscow region. - M.: KMK Scientific Press, 1999
10. Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages. - M.: Nauka, 1983. - T. 10. - P. 169-171.
11. Toporov V.N.
    From Hittite-Luwian etymology: the theophoric name
    Kamrušepa
    // Etymology 1983. - M.: Nauka, 1985. - P. 150-151.
12. Mullen, Gary;
    Durden, Lance. Medical and Veterinary Entomology (English). - London: Academic Press, 2009.
13. Fang, Janet.
    Ecology: A world without mosquitoes (English) // Nature. - Nature, 2010. - 21 July (vol. 466, no. 7305). - P. 432-434. - doi:10.1038/466432a. - PMID 20651669.
14. Hawley, WA, Pumpuni, CB, Brady, RH & Craig, GB
    Overwintering survival of
    Aedes albopictus
    (Diptera: Culicidae) eggs in Indiana // Journal of Medical Entomology: journal. - 1989. - Vol. 26, no. 2. - P. 122-129. - PMID 2709388.
15. Hanson, SM & Craig, GB Aedes albopictus
    (Diptera: Culicidae) eggs: field survivorship during northern Indiana winters // Journal of Medical Entomology: journal. - 1995. - Vol. 32, no. 5. - P. 599-604. - PMID 7473614.
16. Romi, R., Severini, F. & Toma, L.
    Cold acclimation and overwintering of female
    Aedes albopictus
    in Roma (English) // Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association: journal. - 2006. - Vol. 22, no. 1. - P. 149-151. - doi:10.2987/8756-971X(2006)22[149:CAAOOF]2.0.CO;2. - PMID 16646341.
17. ↑ 1 2 3 Agrinsky N.I.
    Insects and ticks that harm farm animals.
18. Parasitology and invasive animal diseases / M. Sh. Akbaev, A. A. Vodyanov, N. E. Kosminkov
    and others; edited by M. Sh. Akbaeva.
19. David A. Grimaldi, Art Borkent.
    The Earliest Fossil Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae), in Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber // Annals of the Entomological Society of America. — 2004-09-01. - Vol. 97, iss. 5. - P. 882-888. — ISSN 0013-8746. - doi:10.1603/0013-8746(2004)097[0882:TEFMDC]2.0.CO;2.
20. Wojciech Giłka, Ralph E. Harbach, Evgeny E. Perkovsky.
    Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in Eocene amber from the Rovno region, Ukraine (English) // Zootaxa. — 2021-08-05. - Vol. 5016, iss. 2. - P. 257–270. — ISSN 1175-5334. - doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5016.2.6.
21. Wilkerson, 2022, p. ix (vol. 1).
22. Harbach RE
    The Culicidae (Diptera): a review of taxonomy, classification and phylogeny (English) // Zootaxa: Journal. - 2007. - 21 December (vol. 1668). - P. 591-638. — ISSN 1175-5326.
23. Culicidae Classification | Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory. mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.info. Date accessed: November 10, 2022.
24. Elissa A. Hallem;
    Nicole Fox, A.; Zwiebel, Laurence J.; Carlson, John R. Olfaction: Mosquito receptor for human-sweat odorant (English) // Nature: journal. - 2004. - Vol. 427, no. 6971. - P. 212-213. - doi:10.1038/427212a. - PMID 14724626.
25. Devlin, Hannah
    . Sweat and blood why mosquitoes pick and choose between humans, London: The Times (4 February 2010). Retrieved May 13, 2010.
26. RG Estrada-Franco & GB Craig.
    Biology, disease relationship and control of
    Aedes albopictus
    . - Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, 1995. - (Technical Paper No. 42).
27. Anna Petherick
    How DEET jams insects' smell sensors.
    Nature
    (March 13, 2008). Access date: April 4, 2012. Archived August 25, 2011.
28. Top 10 deadliest animals on the planet (English), Telegraph.co.uk
    (14 April 2009). Archived from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
29. Lymphatic Filariasis (undefined)
    .
    World Health Organization (WHO) website
    . World Health Organization (WHO). Access date: August 24, 2011.
30. Can I get HIV from mosquitoes? (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). CDC (October 20, 2006). Retrieved October 4, 2022. Archived April 2, 2016.
31. Resistance is Useless, The Economist (8 April 2009).
32. Ultrasound mosquito control is refuted by science
33. Nursery "Gambusia", Krasnodar Regional Public Organization for Biological Safety
34. Ewen Callaway.
    Rio fights Zika with biggest release yet of bacteria-infected mosquitoes
    (undefined)
    . Nature (October 26, 2016). doi:10.1038/nature.2016.20878
35. ↑ 1 2 Reznik N.
    Mosquitoes against fever // Trinity option - Science. - 2022. - No. 9 (228). — P. 15.
36. ↑ 1 2 Kelly Servick.
    Brazil will release billions of lab-grown mosquitoes to combat infectious disease.
    Will it work? (undefined)
    . Science (October 13, 2016). doi:10.1126/science.aal0253

Body structure

The mosquito has a thin body, long thin legs, narrow wings and claws. The head, thorax and abdomen represent the basis of the mosquito's body.

The thorax section occupies an important place in the structure, which includes the elements of the mesothorax, prothorax and metathorax, and is the central organ of the insect.

The mosquito wing includes longitudinal and transverse veins, framed by a costal vein. The posterior edge of the wing is covered with fringe. The sound of a wing flapping is similar to its buzzing. When a mosquito flaps its wings, a person hears a mosquito squeak.

The weight of the mosquito is determined by the amount of diet consumed. The legs of mosquitoes are represented by the coxa, trochanter, femurs, tibiae and tarsi. The head consists of an antenna and mouthparts. The mouth has two lips, lower and upper.

The difference between a female and a male

The female's diet consists of blood, while the males consume water and nectars. The male mosquito never drinks blood, preferring it to water and nectars. The female needs blood during the period of laying eggs. From it she extracts nutrients, protein and iron enzyme.

The difference between a female mosquito and a male

Using a special antenna, the female pierces the epithelium and drinks blood, like a straw. Such an antenna helps males during mating; thanks to it, the male senses and anticipates the position of the females.

Nutrition

The female feeds on blood to lay eggs. She needs blood as a building element for future offspring. Males prefer water and plant nectar of burdock, flowering tansy, and yarrow to blood.

The mosquito chooses its diet depending on its habitat. Tansy is a favorite delicacy of forest dwellers and cottage dwellers. The fructose contained in tansy affects the mosquito's body.

Some representatives of mosquitoes prefer to use exofloral nectar and honeydew as food.

Life cycle

A mosquito develops through four stages: the appearance of an egg, a larva, then a pupa and, finally, an adult. The entire period takes several months. The appearance of the larva is similar to a worm or caterpillar. The environment in which the mosquito is located determines the life span of the individual.

The ambient temperature level is important. At higher temperatures they can live up to 40 days; lower temperatures extend the life cycle to 100 days.

In their natural environment, mosquitoes feed on the blood of animals and reproduce, resulting in numerous offspring. Once in an apartment, the bloodsucking insect can live for up to a month, and in such conditions the larvae appear in small numbers. However, in damp basements, entrances, sewers and drains, the mosquito feels good and reproduces well.

Lifestyle[ | ]

Play media file

Video of an
Anopheline
and feeding on a caterpillar Mosquitoes on a reptile Female
Ochlerotatus notoscriptus
feeding on a human hand, Tasmania, Australia

Typically, in the temperate zone, mosquitoes are active from May to October. If there was a lot of snow in the winter, and the spring is early, consistently warm and moderately humid, mosquitoes may appear as early as April.

Like all other dipteran insects, mosquitoes have 4 developmental phases: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Moreover, all phases, except adults, live in reservoirs. Mosquito larvae and pupae living in water breathe atmospheric air through breathing tubes, exposing them to the surface. Mosquito larvae - filter feeders or scrapers - feed on aquatic microorganisms. The feeding of adults is often dual: females of most mosquito species drink the blood of vertebrates: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians; at the same time, the males of all species of mosquitoes, without exception, feed on the nectar of flowering plants. However, representatives of the subfamily Toxorhynchitinae

have predatory larvae, while their adults (both males and females) feed exclusively on nectar.

In summer, adult females of blood-sucking mosquitoes are found both in nature in swampy and damp places, and in animal premises, in human homes on walls, windows, and shaded places. In winter, they can be found in livestock buildings, warm basements, and other buildings, where they are in an inactive state, or in torpor (if the temperature is below 0 °C) [17].

When choosing a victim, the female blood-sucking mosquito focuses on the smell of lactic acid contained in sweat [27] (several kilometers), on carbon dioxide exhaled by a person (hundreds of meters) and on thermal radiation (several meters), on movement, and also the female mosquito reacts to light, preferring dimly lit rooms, which is why in city apartments females are mainly nocturnal.

The average lifespan of a female C. p. pipiens f. molestus

depends largely on temperature. In laboratory conditions (such observations were not carried out in basements), on carbohydrate nutrition at 25 °C females live on average 43 days, at +20 °C - 57 days, and at +10...+15 °C - 114-119 days; In the absence of food, life expectancy is greatly reduced. The lifespan of males in all cases is much shorter, so at +25 °C it is only 19 days.

A completely different picture is observed in mosquitoes of the pipiens

, which under certain circumstances can become long-lived.
If the females hatched from pupae in July - early August, then they all diapause and go to wintering, which lasts until March - May; After wintering ends, they reproduce and live for another 1-2 months. In total, the life expectancy of such females is about a year. By comparison, the lifespan of Aedes
, which diapause during the egg stage, is much shorter: they are born in the spring, reproduce, and die by the fall.

The pupae are mobile. The respiratory openings of the pupa are not located on the abdomen, as in larvae and adults, but on the upper side of the chest, which the insect holds near the surface during breathing, and through which the mature adult emerges. On the empty shell of the pupa, the insect waits until its wings dry out before flying.

Reproduction

The mosquito is capable of producing a sound, a kind of squeak, which, due to sound vibrations, is easily picked up by the male. Highly sensitive antennae help him in this.

Over time, the squeak sound of adults changes.

Reproduction takes place in a swarm formed by mosquitoes. The female lays about 20-160 eggs, the process lasts several days. The basis for the egg hatching process is the level of blood consumed by the female.

Egg laying mainly takes place on the soil near the shore, on objects floating in water bodies. To hatch offspring, moisture is needed; in water, the larvae resemble a raft in appearance.

The larva hatches after two days. The adult appears after a couple of weeks; there are cases when this period takes up to one month.

Classification[ | ]

Common mosquito ( Culex pipiens

)

Yellow fever mosquito ( Aedes aegypti

) on a victim
Electron micrograph of a mosquito egg Egg raft of the Culex
, partially broken, with separate egg shapes Anatomy of the
Culex
The family includes 3570 valid species, 130 subspecies, 41 genera, 187 subgenera. Within the family, two subfamilies are distinguished; the subfamily Culicinae is divided into 11 tribes[21][22][23]:

• Subfamily Anophelinae Grassi, 1900 Genus Anopheles
  Meigen, 1818
• Genus Bironella Theobald, 1905
• Genus Chagasia Cruz, 1906

How a mosquito bites and drinks blood

To bite a victim, a mosquito needs to find it. Using the sense of smell, the mosquito will do this without difficulty. The mosquito antenna has up to 100 types of receptors. A third of them recognize substances characteristic of humans or animals.

Bloodsuckers easily distinguish the movement of the victim. Hearing a buzzing sound, a person realizes that it is a mosquito approaching. The mosquito is most active at night.

A mosquito can inflict many bites on both humans and animals. Komarika tries to drink the entire amount of blood at once. She then digests the blood and begins laying eggs while sufficient nutrients are present in the body. Protein is primarily needed by females to reproduce offspring. Bloodsuckers identify the victim through the thermal environment that radiates from the body of a person or animal. In the wild, insects drink the lymph of animals, and also, in rare cases, the blood of birds.

Scientists have found that mosquitoes that weigh 4 grams can drink the same amount of blood, i.e. identical to its weight.

Why do mosquitoes bite - video

Mosquitoes have benefited science

Little is known, but the structure of the mosquito's proboscis has inspired scientists to create less painful hypodermic needles, as well as to study strategies to make needle insertion easier and create guides for inserting tiny electrodes into the brain.

Mosquito saliva contains anticoagulants (prevents blood from clotting) that maintain blood flow until the mosquito has finished eating. Some scientists have hope that mosquito saliva may have some potential use in treating cardiovascular disease. For example, the development of anti-blood clotting drugs.

However, although the composition of mosquito saliva is relatively simple (containing fewer than 20 dominant proteins), despite great strides in studying this issue, to date scientists only know about half of the molecules contained in insect saliva.

The structure of a mosquito's proboscis has inspired scientists to create less painful hypodermic needles. © Joe Balynas

Why do mosquitoes bite some people more than others?

Every person has experienced a mosquito bite and knows about all the negative consequences. Often some people are bitten more and others are bitten less. You can refer to chance, but certain factors are inherent in this pattern.

Let's look at the main factors that attract mosquitoes:

• Physical activity. In the human body, with high activity, sweat begins to be released, which in turn increases the content of lactic acid, which is attractive to bloodsuckers.
• Blood type. Mosquitoes prefer to bite people with the 1st group.
• The smell of alcohol. Alcohol in the blood attracts insects to a person; the fact of alcohol intoxication increases the chance of getting a bite.
• The fact of pregnancy. Due to the high content of carbon dioxide in the blood, the blood of a pregnant woman becomes very attractive.
• Shade of clothing. Dark colors attract mosquitoes more than light colors.

What happens to your body when a mosquito bites you

Who is more attractive to a mosquito as a victim?

Mosquitoes are very sensitive to odors released by our glands, such as ammonia, lactic acid and uric acid. The more you sweat, and the more sweat is absorbed into your clothing, the more bacteria accumulates on your skin (especially if you exercise or work outside), and the more attractive you become to mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are also attracted to the heat generated by the human body. The more bulk a person has, the more attractive a target he becomes, although this, of course, does not mean that mosquitoes will not bite thin people or children.

What diseases does it carry?

Certain types of mosquitoes pose a danger to humans. It is not the bite itself that is scary, but infectious diseases transmitted through blood. The most dangerous mosquitoes live in areas such as Africa, America, and Asia.

Malaria is considered an extremely dangerous disease and can be transmitted by the so-called malaria mosquito.

A person can get the following types of infections from mosquitoes:

• Malaria.
• Tularemia.
• Eastern equine encephalitis.
• West Nile virus, a type of fever.
• Filariasis.

Content

• 1 Etymology
• 2 Range 2.1 Means of distribution

The meaning of mosquitoes

The mosquito is an essential participant in the food chain. Its total extinction could affect the entire world.

Mosquito eggs and larvae serve as food for many amphibians. Its larva filters water. Within an hour, it passes about a liter of water. The adult cleanses water bodies by eating decomposition products.

The value of a mosquito remains even after its death. By dying, mosquitoes enrich the earth with essential microelements.

Males participate in pollination, thereby promoting plant development. For carnivorous plants, the mosquito is a favorite treat. The disappearance of mosquitoes could lead to a decline in certain species of fish and irreversible changes in the world of lakes and rivers.

Despite their negative impact on humans, mosquitoes form an important food chain in nature. The biocenosis includes representatives of insects, birds, fish and amphibians. If any participant is completely destroyed, irreversible changes in natural conditions may occur.

What if mosquitoes disappeared - video

The mosquito is important for maintaining the population of cold-blooded animals such as the toad, frog, and also the bat.

The absence of mosquitoes may contribute to changes in deer habitat. They do not like mosquitoes and live where they are absent. The disappearance of bloodsuckers can lead to the development of new territories.

They have a positive impact on the ecosystem

The only good thing about mosquitoes is that they are a reliable food source for thousands of animals, including birds, bats, dragonflies, frogs, spiders, salamanders, fish and other insects. Additionally, humans are not really the best food source for most mosquitoes. They generally prefer horses, cattle and birds.

Photo: Syed Ali

Natural enemies

Mosquitoes have many enemies around who want to eat them. It is a delicacy for dragonfly larvae. Besides her, the rest of the inhabitants of the rivers and seas try to swallow them.

There are also predators among plants that catch mosquitoes and use them as a source of food. With the help of an adhesive composition, butterwort, flycatcher, sundew, and bladderwort plants capture the mosquito.

Birds: swift, swallow, oriole, wren, chaffinch, starling and tit. Reptiles: frog, newt, toad, chameleon, lizard and turtle.

The bat and the common mouse, as well as the hedgehog, love to feast on mosquitoes.

Where do mosquitoes spend the winter?

The mosquito is excellent at adapting to changes in its environment. Thus, the tropical mosquito is active all year round, while other species sleep in winter. During this period, all life processes decrease.

The Arctic mosquito leads an active life only a couple of days a year; it spends this time on intensive reproduction.

Individuals prefer to winter in warm places, in a humid environment. Such places include:

• Cellars and basements.
• Sheds.
• Roof and attic.
• Wooden cracks.
• Deep cracks in the walls;
• Window frame.
• Ceiling cracks.
• Holes in furniture.
• Ventilation hatches.
• Bathroom

In the forest, mosquitoes hide in wooden hollows, burrows, wet soil, and boulders. These shelters provide mosquitoes with warmth and protection from the cold.

Mosquitoes protection

To protect yourself from bloodsuckers, a person must carefully protect his skin, avoiding dark colors when choosing clothes. You should wear long-sleeve T-shirts and cover your head with a cap or hat. Instead of shorts, wear trousers, and choose socks as high as possible.

While in the forest, you should treat your clothes and shoes with a mosquito repellent spray. The skin of the face and hands must be covered with a special repellent.

Actions to protect yourself from mosquitoes:

• Avoid exposing your legs and arms to minimize exposed areas on your body.
• Choose light, thick clothes in the dark.
• Monitor the duration of action of the protective spray, renew every 4-5 hours.
• Eliminate additional conditions for mosquito habitat.
• Avoid children staying in swampy areas and ponds that are infested with mosquitoes.
• When visiting Africa and Asia, take care of vaccination in advance, which will protect against dangerous diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.

What needs to be done to protect against mosquitoes in a private household:

• Close containers with water. Change the water in jars and buckets every day.
• The accumulation of rainwater creates ideal conditions for insects to breed.
• Undrained puddles should be avoided in the area.
• Regularly remove weeds and weed bushes.
• Monitor the storage and disposal of waste.

In an urban environment, the main measures will be:

• Disinsection treatment of basements, especially flooded ones, with the help of special services and organizations.
• Timely cleaning of garbage cans.
• Monitoring the condition of sites near swamps, ponds and lakes.

Mosquito control[ | ]

All mosquito repellents can be divided into:

• environmental - improvement of reservoirs, improvement of basements; ecological methods are aimed at creating conditions in cultural landscapes that are not suitable for the development of mosquitoes (draining wetlands, deepening the banks of reservoirs, clearing them of semi-submerged vegetation);
• physical - traps like Velcro, etc., mosquito nets, mosquito nets, canopies (mosquito tent), thick clothing;
• folk - these are plants and their extracts, the smell of which is not tolerated by mosquitoes. There is no convincing scientific evidence of intolerance;
• biological - larvivorous fish (gambusia, Japanese medaka, Heterandria formosa, etc.), microbiological (bacteria) destroyers of mosquito larvae (biolarvicide and its varieties), dragonflies catch adult mosquitoes in flight, dragonfly larvae eat mosquito larvae in water;
• chemical - disinfestation. Personal protective equipment: repellents, insecticides, fumigators (ignited coils; electro-fumigators using replaceable impregnated plates or bottles with liquid);
• technical - ultrasonic devices - repelling mosquitoes (the effect of repellers, depending on the model, extends to an area from 20 to 5000 m2), although Dutch scientists noted the lack of evidence of the effect of ultrasound on mosquitoes[32];
• ultraviolet devices that destroy mosquitoes (mosquito lamp).

For mass mosquito control, the use of environmentally friendly biological preparations based on the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis

.
Larval-eating fish are very effective, but systematic work is rarely carried out with them, with the exception of the Sochi nursery “Gambusia”[33], which distributes Gambusia and eucalyptus fish for free. The larval stage of mosquitoes is the most vulnerable, this is what the action of the drug Bacillus thuringiensis
- to destroy mosquitoes in the larval stage, without waiting for them to turn into adults and scatter throughout the area.

The drug contains spores and protein crystals of a special microbial culture of Bacillus thuringiensis

.

Swimming in the water, mosquito larvae eat spores and protein crystals and die.

To combat the spread of a number of viral infections (dengue, Zika and chikungunya fevers), infection of the mosquitoes that carry them (in particular, Aedes aegypti)

and
Aedes albopictus
) Wolbachia, which suppresses the reproduction of viruses. The bacterium spreads among mosquitoes, infects up to 90% of the population in 10-20 weeks and persists in it for at least 5 years. The method is used in Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil and China[34][35][36].

Genetic modification[ | ]

Another way to combat these infections is to genetically modify mosquitoes, as a result of which they produce non-viable offspring. The proliferation of enough of these males causes a radical decrease in population size. The method was tested in 2009 in the Cayman Islands: a batch of modified Aedes aegypti

, and the number of mosquitoes there has decreased by 96%. Later, successful tests were carried out in Panama, Malaysia and Brazil. Unlike infection control by infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia, this method requires the annual release of prepared mosquitoes. Methods of genetic modification of mosquitoes are also being developed, leading to the suppression of dengue virus replication and cell apoptosis in response to the presence of the virus [35] [36].

Interesting Facts

• Today there are about 4,000 species of mosquitoes.
• Their habitat is all over the globe.
• The mosquito body reaches 10-13 millimeters in length.
• The male lives 14 days, while the female lives 2-3 months.
• Cannot fly in windy conditions.
• Certain individuals can consume plasma from fish and reptiles.
• Only the female needs blood to hatch eggs; the male mosquito prefers nectar and water.
• Mosquitoes most often bite a person who has eaten a banana.
• The sound of a mosquito is nothing more than the sound of frequent flapping of its wings.
• The male, meeting the female, begins to flap his wings synchronously with her.
• Females choose females more often than males as their victims.
• In terms of smell, mosquitoes are attracted to sweaty people.
• Mosquitoes bite sweaty people much more often.
• It takes 86 hours for a mosquito to transform from a larval state to an adult state.
• An interesting fact is that mosquitoes have infrared vision, which gives them excellent orientation in the dark.
• Mosquitoes do not fly far from their place of birth; they live within the nearest radius from it.
• Entangled in the web, they remain invisible to the spider due to their low weight.
• A mosquito egg can remain in the ground for up to 3 years, waiting for favorable conditions to be born.
• The full moon increases the activity of mosquitoes several times.
• Males prefer older females.
• By biting a person, an enzyme enters the bloodstream, which has an analgesic effect. This is what causes redness and itching.
• Mosquitoes transmit hepatitis, malaria, encephalitis and dengue fever.
• A hungry mosquito can fly great distances in search of food.
• They have one pair of wings.
• A mosquito can walk on water.
• At one time, the female gives birth to an average of 100 eggs.
• Every year, mosquitoes transmit various diseases to nearly 500 million people.

Features and habitat

There are insects in the world that everyone knows about. And these include small parasites - annoying mosquitoes that fly everywhere in the summer: in nature and in cities, especially accumulating near water bodies, recognizable by everyone by their monotonous and irritating buzzing.

The mosquito insect belongs to the phylum arthropods, the family of dipterous insects. The length of its thin body ranges from 8 to 130 mm. Color can be gray, brown and yellow. There are green and black varieties. As you can see in the photo of the mosquito , its abdomen is elongated, its chest is much wider, and there are two claws at the end of its legs. It has two pairs of scaled, transparent wings.

But for flight, the mosquito uses only the front wings, while the hind wings are called halteres, which help maintain balance in the air and create the sound characteristic of this insect. The mosquito has long antennae and a proboscis, special oral organs: case-like lips and thin needle-like teeth, as well as two pairs of jaws, which are underdeveloped in males.

There are many varieties of mosquitoes. They are distributed throughout the world and inhabit all continents, penetrating and taking root even in unsuitable territories, except Antarctica. The common mosquito is especially famous, which can be seen in all places where there are people.

Mosquitoes are able to survive even in the Arctic, but they are active there only for a few weeks a year, and during this time they breed and multiply to incredible numbers. In Spain and nearby countries, such parasites are called “mosquito”. Translated, this word means: small fly. In these parts, insects are terribly annoying and annoy people intolerably.

Often human hostility is caused by insects similar to mosquitoes . These creatures sometimes look really scary, having a long body, which in some cases can reach six centimeters, a frighteningly shaped chest and huge legs.

Fear is also heightened by the fact that many people mistake them for malaria mosquitoes. But it could just be a long-legged mosquito. The insect is completely harmless, is not interested in human blood, but feeds on nectar.

In the photo there is a long-legged mosquito