The Deadly Mosquitoes which can be harmful are:
Anopheles mosquito
- Anopheles mosquito is the main vector of Malaria diseases.
- It is also a zoophilic species.
- It rests during day time in cattle sheds and human dwellings.
- Anopheles breed extensively during the monsoon season.
- Its favoured breeding places are : rainwater pools and puddles, borrow pits, river bed pools, irrigation channels, seepages, rice fields, wells, pond margins, sluggish streams with sandy margins.
- Anopheles start biting soon after dusk.
Aedes mosquito
- Aedes Aegypti mosquito is the vector of Dengue, Filariasis, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever diseases.
- It is approximately 5 mm in size, black in colour with white stripes.
- It develops the virus in its body within 7 to 8 days and transmits the disease.
- It is "day" biter.
- It generally feeds in domestic and peridomestic situations on human beings.
- It bites repeatedly.
- Most common breeding places are : Desert coolers, Drums, Jars, Pots, Buckets, Flower vases, Plant saucers, Tanks, Cisterns, Bottles, Tins, Tyres, Roof gutters, Refrigerator drip pans, Cement blocks, Cemetery urns, Bamboo stumps, Coconut shells, Tree holes and many more places where rainwater collects or is stored.
- Eggs of Aedes aegypti can live without water for more then one year.
- Aedes are painful and persistent biters.
- They are Very strong fliers and are known to fly many miles from their breeding sources.
Culex and other mosquitoes
- It is a vector of Filariasis and Japanese encephalitis.
- It is painful and also a persistent biter.
- It prefers to attack at dusk and after dark.
- Culex tarsalis is known to transmit encephalitis to man and horses.
- There are Generally weak fliers and do not move far from home.
- During the warm summer, Culex usually lives only a few weeks.
- During hot summer, female is out in search of water to lay eggs.
Interesting facts about mosquitoes are:
- Only female mosquitoes bite and drink blood.
- Male mosquitoes feed from the nectar of the flower.
- Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth. More deaths are associated with mosquito than any other animal on the planet.
- Some of the deadly disease caused by mosquitoes bites are malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya, kala-azar and encephalitis.
- Female mosquitoes need protein for their eggs, and hence take a blood meal in order to reproduce. Since males don't bear the burden of producing youngones,so they survive by feeding on flower nectar.
- All mosquitoes require water to breed. Just a smallest puddle of water is enough for a female to deposit her eggs . Some species can breed in puddles left after a rainstorm.
- Mosquitoes can detect a potential blood meal from 75 feet away through the key signal of "Carbon dioxide" which humans and other animals produce.
References: http://nvbdcp.gov.in
http://www.cdc.gov
http://www.mosquitoes.org
http://insects.about.com