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When a mosquito bit me in September 1982, this date became a significant landmark in my life, I remember it the same way I remember my graduation or my marriage or even my children’s birth. The mosquito that bit me infected me with Malaria Fever that I lived with for twelve years was a Senegalese one.

This article provided an opportunity for me to learn a little more about these tiny insects that I loath. Let me share with you my collection of assorted mosquito facts. Diseases that are carried by mosquitos is not the basis of this story. Here is a collection of mosquito facts, some of which you may know and others you may not.

* Etymology:

- The words Mosquito and Musket can both be traced back to the Latin word for Fly musca. Mosquito is the diminutive of this word, so it means Little Fly. The earliest recorded English use of this word dates back to around 1583. Around 1950, the word Musket was first used in the English language and was borrowed from the French word Mousquet. The Italian word Moschetta is derived from the French word meaning catapult or bolt from a crossbow. After crossbows gave way to muskets, the word remained the same. Like a bullet shot from a gun, the mosquito flies, buzzes, and stings.

* Eradication:

- Eradicating mosquitoes is almost impossible because they are able to adapt to changing environments so well.

- Eradicating mosquitoes would affect the animals that eat them frogs, bats, birds and fish.

* Contrary to popular belief, mosquitoes don't actually get nourished by consuming blood. Mosquito adults need to eat sugar every day to obtain energy to fuel their flight. The juice from fruits, plant liquids and the nectar from flowers as well as plant rot all contributes to help mosquitoes get their daily sucrose intake.

- In order to manufacture eggs, a grown female mosquito needs a good source of protein and lots of iron-rich blood. After it mates it needs blood every day.

*Reproduction in Mosquitoes

- The female of the mosquito species lays from 100-300 eggs at a time, and may produce between one and three thousand offspring in her lifetime.

Compared to 10 to 20 days for a male mosquito, the average female mosquito lifespan is between 3 and 100 days.
Mosquito lifespan varies according to the species. Some species that hibernate in the winter can live up to six months.

* Mosquito Flight:

- Generally, mosquitoes do not fly higher than 25 to 40 ft., particularly for species that bite humans. However, The Asian Tiger Mosquito breeds in tree holes that are over 40 feet high and has been found in high rise buildings in Singapore. Different species of mosquito have been discoered as high as the Himalayan Mountains with an elevation of 8000 ft. Mosquitoes were found in mines 2000 feet underground in India.

- Mosquitoes fly at an estimated speed of 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.

- Although the majority of mosquitoes have to rest once they have flown a distance of a few miles, mosquitoes that reproduce in homes are able to fly for just a few hundred feet at one time. Mosquitoes go very long distances, but the salt marsh mosquito can fly 40 miles.

- That buzz that we associate with mosquitos comes from it flapping its wings between 400 to 700 times per second as it flies. The buzzing we hear is almost always produced by female wings because male mosquitoes do not bite humans.

* Mosquito Vision:

- Mosquitoes are only able to see someone 30 feet away. They rely on thermal receptors located on the tips of their antennae to locate their blood-hosts at a distance of 10 feet. You will find that these receptors will be much more powerful in humid climates.

- Mosquitoes also use scent and heat to locate blood-hosts. They can smell the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans and mammals.

- Once the female mosquito gets closer to the source of its blood meal, body odors help it locate the prey. The human skin produces hundreds of odors which could attract or repel mosquitoes.

- Mosquitoes are more likely to be drawn to people dressed in dark colors that attract heat, than to people dressed in light colors that refract heat.

* Mosquito Control products will affect various mosquito species differently, out of the 3000 species.

* These insects, mosquitoes are quite flexible and stury pests. A brand of pesticide or mosquito fogger will rarely be effective for longer than two months sense they build up immunity to pesticides in as little as two months, about six mosquito generations.

- Zappers draw the mosquitoes toward the device, yet it isn't lethal to them.

* Mosquito Myths:

- When there is a full moon Mosquitoes bite 500 times more.

- Individuals who have bananas in their diet draw mosquitoes.

- Eating garlic and swallowing vitamin B12 repels mosquitoes.

- Mosquitoes can pass HIV/AIDS from an infected person to an uninfected person.

The most important mosquito fact of all of course is this - because it imbibes blood and transmits serious diseases from one host to another, the female mosquito is responsible for more human deaths than any other creature on our planet. Right now, a child in Africa is killed every 30 seconds solely by Malaria Fever.
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