Mary Allen
Mosquitoes or gnats are flying insects that can transmit diseases. In some areas and countries, they are also called Staunsen, Gelsen, or Mosquitos. There are more than 3500 species of mosquitoes in the world. In Europe, there are about a hundred.
Female mosquitoes drink blood. Her mouth is shaped like a thin, pointed trunk. They use it to pierce the skin of people and animals and suck up the blood. That’s why they call him a snout. The females need blood so they can lay eggs. When they’re not sucking blood, they drink sweet plant juices. The male mosquitoes only drink sweet plant sap and never suck blood. You can recognize them by their bushy antennae.
Can mosquitoes be dangerous?
Some mosquitoes can transmit pathogens with their bite and thereby make people and animals sick. An example is a malaria, a tropical disease. You get a high fever. Children in particular often die from it.
Fortunately, not every mosquito transmits diseases. A mosquito must first bite a person who is already sick. It then takes over a week for the mosquito to pass on the pathogens.
In addition, such diseases are transmitted only by certain species of mosquitoes. In the case of malaria, it is only the malaria mosquitoes that do not occur here in Europe. Other diseases cannot be transmitted by mosquitoes at all, such as mumps, chickenpox, or AIDS.
How do mosquitoes reproduce?
Mosquito eggs are very small and are usually laid on the surface of the water. In some species singly, in others in small packages. Small animals then hatch from the eggs, which look very different from the adult mosquitoes. They live in water and are good at diving. They are called mosquito larvae.
Many mosquito larvae often hang their tails below the surface of the water. This tail is hollow and they breathe through it like a snorkel. Later, the larvae hatch into animals that look different from the larvae or adult mosquitoes. They are called mosquito pupae. They also live in the water. They breathe through two snails at the front end. Adult animals hatch from the pupae.
Mosquito larvae and pupae can often be found in rain barrels or buckets that have had water in them for some time. If you look closely, you can even find the “egg packs”. They look like small black boats floating on the water and are therefore also called mosquito boats. In such a clutch there are up to 300 eggs. It usually takes one to three weeks for the egg to become an adult mosquito.