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Both male and female mosquitoes feed
on flower nectar and fruits, but only the female mosquito bites; she requires a blood meal every three to four
days for the protein necessary to produce eggs. Female mosquitoes often consume more than their own weight in blood.
Mosquitoes use anticoagulants in their saliva, to prevent blood from clotting and closing a wound so the mosquito
can drink it.
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- Aedes mosquitoes, responsible for transmitting dengue and
yellow fever, bite mostly during the day.
- Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes, which transmit malaria
and West Nile Virus, bite mostly in the evening or at night.
- Some mosquitoes prefer feeding on animals, others prefer
human blood meals.
- Some species of mosquito are seasonal biters, and switch
from animal to human thereby spreading infections between the two. West Nile Virus, for instance, is spread from
birds to humans when a mosquito first bites an infected bird and then, after an incubation period of 5 to 15 days,
bites a human and passes the virus into human blood through its saliva.
- Adults are more likely to be bitten than children, and
young adults more likely to be bitten than older adults.
- Men are more likely to be bitten than women.
- Larger persons attract more mosquitoes, perhaps because
of their greater relative heat or carbon dioxide output.
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Mosquitoes belong to the
order Diptera. Members of the genera Anopheles, Culex, and Aedes are responsible for most bites in humans
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At long range, mosquitoes
use sight and smell to find a victim with smell being the most important. Carbon dioxide, given off when you breathe,
can be detected by mosquitoes up to a hundred feet away. Lactic acid, given off by muscle activity, is another
important mosquito attractant. So if you can stop breathing and all movement, mosquitoes may not notice you!
At close range mosquitoes use body heat and electrical stimuli given off by living things to locate their target.
This may be why mosquitoes prefer biting the head and neck, ankles and feet, as the blood vessels are close to
the surface in those areas and give off more body heat. In addition, these areas have more sweat gland activity. |
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