Some General Mosquito facts

- A mosquito only weighs 1/25,000 of an ounce.
- Mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other living creature.
- There are over 2,500 species of mosquitoes scattered throughout the world.
- Hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes are born every day.
- Most adult mosquitoes live for about two weeks, while some species can live as long as 5 months.
- Only female mosquitoes bite—they need the protein for their eggs.
- Male mosquitoes survive by sucking on nectar and other plant juices.
- The welt that appears after a mosquito bites is an allergic reaction to the saliva that is injected into your skin to prevent your blood from clotting.
- Mosquitoes rarely travel farther than 300 feet from their birthplace.
- Light colors are less attractive to mosquitoes than dark colors; thus, mosquitoes are more likely to choose a victim wearing darker colors.
- Mosquitoes are found all over the world, even in cold places like the Arctic.
- Arctic researchers uncovered their chests, arms, and legs and reported as many as 9,000 mosquito bites per person, per minute. At this rate, an unprotected human would lose one half of his or her blood supply in approximately 2 hours!
- Some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others. It is not clear why, but probably has something to do with the 300 odd chemicals produced by the skin.
- Mosquitoes prefer dark places like trees, grass and shrubs.
- Like humans, mosquitoes have food preferences—not all mosquito species bite humans, some prefer birds, horses, frogs or turtles.