Member-only story
Health and Disease
Sick from Mosquito Bites
Vector-borne illnesses from Culicidae insects
Mosquitoes are probably best known as annoying buzzing insects that interrupt summer outings or quiet evenings by the fire pit. But some members of this family of small flies (order Diptera) kill millions of people a year. The most well known mosquito-borne disease is probably malaria, but there are dozens more, from parasites that infect pets with heartworm to viruses that cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in humans.
Why mosquitoes bite
Mosquitoes belong to the same insect class as flies but have a proboscis — an elongated, needle-like mouth. This physical adaptation allows the female mosquitoes to feed on blood for nourishment when preparing to lay eggs. Different species of mosquitoes like different species of blood, from humans and other mammals to birds and reptiles. Culex (typical mosquito), Aedes (tiger mosquito), and Anopheles (marsh mosquito) are three of the major genuses of mosquitoes that bite humans.
How mosquitoes spread disease
Because the female mosquito drinks blood, it can also take up infectious agents that live in the blood. Some of these pathogens have a life cycle that includes using the mosquito gut as…
