Head nets are one popular way to get relief from mosquitoes.
To most people, mosquitoes are nothing more than a menace responsible for a great deal of itching. In many parts of the world, however, the mosquito is a carrier of blood-borne diseases and responsible for a great deal of death and suffering. Contrary to popular opinion, mosquitoes do not feed on the blood they remove.
Eggs
Despite what many people may think, mosquitoes do not feed on the blood of mammals for sustenance. The reason that mosquitoes take blood is actually for their eggs. In fact, male mosquitoes do not have the necessary body parts to take blood and are effectively harmless to people, though perhaps still annoying. Female mosquitoes need blood to feed their eggs, and more specifically the blood of a mammal, which makes humans a likely snack.
Food Sources
Once female mosquitoes have satisfied their need for blood for their eggs, they join the males of the species in looking for food. When feeding, they bite, but it is not humans or other mammals they are biting, but rather fruit and plants. Because the average lifespan of a mosquito is between two weeks and six months, however, there is always a need for a new generation, and mother mosquitoes are always looking for blood to help grow eggs.
Disease
Mosquitoes do not have any ill will towards humans, presumably, but their bites come with an unfortunate side effect: the spread of blood-borne disease. A female mosquito may ingest infected blood and, in a subsequent bite, infect another person with the blood-borne disease, much like a dirty needle can transfer blood-borne illnesses. Malaria, encephalitis and the West Nile virus are all examples of illnesses you can receive from a mosquito.
Range
The bite of a mosquito would not be so annoying, perhaps, if there were somewhere human beings could go to escape them, but unfortunately that is not the case. Like any good pest, they are extremely adaptable and found throughout the world. Though it is rare, they are even found far north of the Arctic Circle. Of the 3,000 different species of mosquito that exist, however, only a select few spread human disease.
Tags: their eggs, blood-borne disease, feed blood, great deal, mosquitoes feed