Mosquitoes are celebrities. The way they spread diseases is just as fast as scandal acts. Sometimes rumors are true; sometimes though, overstated. Once you’re bitten doesn’t instantly mean you’re going to die; yet at the same time mosquitoes are science-proven to be disease-carriers. Life-threatening as it may or not, one deserves to know what’s true and what’s not, the mosquito facts as well as the fiction. There’s a thin line between mosquito facts and fiction. In dealing with mosquitoes we need to know what to do and knowing what we should listen to. Here are the mosquito facts; hopefully from which we could spot the fiction:
Mosquito Facts:
Fact: Mosquitoes live in water. Fiction: Mosquitoes live in any form of water.
Many mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, such as ponds, but others lay eggs in places that are only periodically flooded as long as conditions are favorable for hatching. Mosquitoes do not breed in moving water, such as rivers and streams, also in BTI-treated or predator occupied water.
Fact: Mosquitoes are a nuisance.
Fiction: Mosquitoes are not at all beneficial.
Mosquitoes still have an important part in the food web. Mosquito larvae, pupae, and adults are important as food for fish, birds, bats, frogs, and insects.
Fact: Mosquitoes carry diseases.
Fiction: Mosquitoes of all sorts carry diseases.
Only female mosquitoes bite and suck blood as needed to lay eggs, but in turn transmitting diseases. Adult male mosquitoes feed only on plant nectar and are harmless.
Fact: Mosquitoes are attracted to human CO2 breath. Fiction: Mosquitoes are attracted to human
sweat and particular colors.
Mosquitoes spot their victims through scent (and body-heat), but some human scent could also actually repel mosquitoes as perspiration. People shouldn’t also think that the dampness of sweating could attract mosquitoes; mosquitoes only look for moisture (and shade) in order to find a suitable breeding site and not to bite.
Fact: Mosquito control products are effective some way or another. Fiction: Mosquito control is always only effective.
Bug zappers may harm the environment killing many more benign and beneficial insects other than mosquitoes. Some repellants and insecticides are also harmful to health.
Fact: Mosquito predators (birds, bats, frogs) eat and reduce mosquitoes. Fiction: Mosquito predators
could be relied upon in eliminating all mosquitoes.
Although mosquitoes form a part of the diet of insectivorous birds and bats or fish, these animals eat a variety of insects and can't be counted on to control the mosquito population. They can play a role in a pest management plan, but they won't eradicate mosquitoes entirely.
Fact: Mosquitoes transmit dengue, West Nile, elephantiasis, encephalitis, and malaria. Fiction:
Mosquitoes transmit AIDS.
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is not able to survive inside the body of the mosquito. There has never been a confirmed case of HIV transmission by mosquitoes unlike the other diseases.
Certainly, knowing these mosquito facts has not only tickled the brain but also has shed light as to how we should respond/react to mosquitoes.