Why Mosquitoes Bite

Only female mosquitoes bite, and all mosquitoes live on the sugar found in plant nectar, not on blood. But there is a reason females seek blood.

Female mosquitoes, unlike males, have a proboscis. This is a long thin needle-like built-in syringe located at the mouth. They use this to impale their victims, in order to fill their abdomens with blood. Proteins in the blood are necessary to produce fertile eggs. Since males cannot produce eggs they have no need for blood. Females require a new blood 'meal' for every nest they lay, and produce about 250 eggs per meal.  Aren’t you glad your mosquito bites are so productive?

Mosquitoes can lay their eggs in a thimble full of water or the dew created in the leaves of a magnolia tree. Any insignificant measurable amounts of water, in bird baths, old tires, tin cans, lingering puddles of rain, gutters, catch basins, tree cavities, pine cones or basically any place that can hold water, can create harborage sites for mosquitoes. The eggs may hatch in less than 3 days, and the entire mosquito life cycle, from egg, to pupa, to larva to adult, can be completed in 4-9 days. The eggs of some species are more resistant to drying out than others; some even require drying out before subsequent flooding can induce them to hatch. These are the ones that can survive even the harshest drought, finally hatching when water is again introduced.

Xperts Fact: Mosquitoes have been around for a long, long time. In 300 B.C., Aristotle referred to mosquitoes as "empis" in his "Historia Animalium" where he documented their life cycle and metamorphic abilities.