40 Amazing and Little-Known Mosquito Facts | Amazing Facts 4U
- Mosquitoes exist for as far back as 400 million years ago.
- There are about 2,700 species of mosquito. There are 176 species in the United States.
- The adult mosquitoes can be as long as 16 mm (0.6 inches), and it weighs around 2.5 mg (0.04 g). They are really slim.
- The amazing fact is that mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth. More deaths are associated with mosquitoes than any other animal on the planet.
- They carry many deadly diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis.
- A single malarial mosquito can infect more than 100 people.
- Amazingly half of all humans who have ever lived died from malaria.
- Amazingly only female mosquitoes bite when they are pregnant. Female mosquitoes will obtain blood from humans and animals only to nourish their eggs. Their food actually consists of nectar and other plant juices.
- Not all mosquito species feed on people. Some mosquitoes specialize in other animals. Culiseta melanura, for example, bites birds almost exclusively, and rarely bites humans.
- Anopheles is the only species of mosquitoes known to carry malaria, apart from transmitting filariasis ( Also called elephantiasis) and encephalitis.
- Aedes mosquitoes spread yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis.
- The average life span of a female mosquito is 3 to 100 days. the male lives 10 to 20 days.
- Mosquitoes don’t see very well, but they zoom in like a heat-seeking missile once 30 ft away.
- Amazingly mosquito has 47 teeth.
- The fact is that mosquito’s wings beat 300-600 times per second.
- Mosquitoes don’t like to travel. Most mosquitoes remain within a 1-mile radius of their breeding site.
- They fly at amazingly slow speeds between 1 and 1.5 miles per hour, making them one of the slowest flying insects.
- Salt mosquitoes can travel up to 100 miles away from their larval breeding location. Because they grow in the marsh, they fly far away to find a proper place with a plentiful source of food like nectar and blood.
- Amazingly 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. It can also detect lactic acid from our sweat.
- Amazingly the smell of chocolate can stun the carbon dioxide sensors making it difficult to locate humans.
- The amazing fact is that male mosquitoes find female mosquitoes by listening to the sound of their wings beating. The males can actually identify the correct species by the pitch of the female’s wings. It has been seen that when the male and female meet, their buzzing synchronizes to the same speed.
- A single female can lay 100-300 eggs at a time, up to 1,000-3,000 in her lifetime. Amazingly mosquito eggs can survive for more than five years.
- All mosquitoes require water to breed. Make sure you don’t provide the environment where they thrive.
- The average mosquito weighs 2.5 milligrams and when they drink blood, they consume more than 5 milligrams about twice their body weight in blood.
- Amazingly it would take 1.2 million mosquitoes, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood.
- Bigger people are often more attractive to mosquitoes because they are larger targets and they produce more mosquito attractants, namely CO2 and lactic acid.
- Arctic researchers uncovered their chests, arms, and legs and reported as many as 9000 mosquito bites per person, per minute. At this rate unprotected human would lose one-half of his blood supply in approximately 2 hours.
- Amazing thing is that people with the O blood group are most likely to be bitten by mosquitoes.
- Mosquitoes are more attracted to dark colors than light ones.
- A full moon increased mosquito activity 500% in one study.
- As the mosquito is taking a blood meal, she’s also injecting an anticoagulant to get the blood flowing. Most people have a reaction to that anticoagulant saliva which causes itching.
- Amazingly you feel the bite of the mosquito only after it has finished its job and gone.
- Mosquitoes usually don’t fly in winds more than 10 mph.
- You’re more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas.
- Mosquitoes are able to see the living things around them with the heat that they radiate, which is a kind of infrared light invisible to us. Since this type of sight is not reliant on visible light, they can amazingly find our blood vessels even during the darkness of the night.
- The amazing fact is that mosquito repellents don’t repel. They block mosquito sensors thus hiding you.
- Mosquitoes have tiny hooks on their legs, which they use to latch onto the skin. And they hang onto walls the same way using hairy little foot pads like they’re wearing Velcro socks.
- The amazing fact is that mosquitoes have the most remarkable water walking ability using their superhydrophobic legs. These limbs are so phenomenally water repellent that each one could effectively support 23 times the insect’s weight. Physicists discovered this when they took a single mosquito leg and measured the force needed to push it into a cup of water.
- A raindrop hitting a mosquito is like a human being hit by a bus! Yet it is able to attach itself to the raindrop and just ride it downwards. Amazingly it is careful enough to break away from the drop before it splashes into the ground.
- One of the most common mosquito predators is the dragonfly which is adept to eat mosquitoes at all phases of their lifecycle.
Visit and subscribe to our blog! Get enriching & uplifting quotes right in your inbox: www.wisdomlifequotes.com
