Mosquitoes are pretty small fellows clocking in at a mere 1/8 – 3/8″ long. In addition to their 6 legs, they have a piercing/sucking mouthpart called a proboscis (more on this in a minute). They range in color from black to grey and can have different kinds of markings like white bands on their joints or green or blue stripes on their bodies, etc. Up close, they are actually pretty beautiful creatures. However, don’t let that fool you, they can be very harmful, even deadly…
Mosquitoes belong to the order Diptera; a.k.a. true or two-winged flies. All true flies get their nutrition from liquids because their mouthparts are designed to either pierce or suck. When it comes to mosquitoes, only the females are after your blood. Now, our blood does not provide the nutrition that the adult female needs personally, what she is after is the protein and iron from our blood to create eggs to lay. Both male and female mosquitoes get their nutrition from the sugars in the nectar of various plants. Mosquitoes are typically active in the cooler parts of the day, that’s why you tend to get eaten up mainly in the evening when you are trying to relax on the back porch with the dog. When it gets hot, they usually retreat to the underside of bushes and trees, your eaves, and even the underside of your patio furniture.
Mosquitoes lay their eggs in the form of a raft on the surface of water. Their egg clusters typically contain anywhere from 100-300 eggs and range from 1/8 – 1/4″ long. It’s pretty small and is easily mistaken for a piece of ash floating on the water. When the eggs hatch, which happens about 24 to 48 hours after they’ve been laid, the larvae can easily be seen by the naked eye swimming about it the water. The larvae feed on fungus, algae, and other organic matter in the water. After anywhere from 4 to 14 days of development, they molt into a pupae and float to the surface of the water. It ranges from 1 to 4 days for their metamorphosis to complete and out merges a fully grown mosquito ready to suck your blood!
The mosquito uses 6 different needles to such your blood! Check out this video produced by the guys at Deep Look!
There are a few things you can do for effective control.