Mosquitoes

Of all the creatures on earth, mosquitoes may well pose the greatest threat to man's health and existence. Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, such as Malaria, West Nile virus, Yellow Fever, Filariasis, Dengue Fever and Encephalitis kill and debilitate millions of persons world wide even with today's advances in medicine. As a nuisance biter, they can also have a major negative impact on a local economy by inhibiting recreational or work environments.

Early life stages of mosquitoes (larvae and pupae) must have water in which to survive. Any object capable of retaining water for five or more days is a potential breeding site.

The length of an adult mosquito's life under natural conditions is only a few weeks during the summer months. Mating usually takes place within a 24 to 48 hours after adults emerge. Mosquitoes have a tremendous potential for reproduction. A female mosquito, depending on species can produce about 50 to 500 eggs in her first brood. If we consider and average of just 200 eggs per brood (half of which would be female) and that a mosquito can complete its development in less that two weeks, we can obtain, in only five generations, around 20 Million mosquitoes. If we can get 20 million offspring from only one female, thousands of females may produce billions or trillions of mosquitoes.

Females, depending on species, will feed at any time of the day or night. Some feed on people only when they wander into the areas in which they live. Others will fly 5 to 10 miles to feed. Still others seek us out inside our own homes.

How do I protect myself against Mosquitoes?

Mosquito control is problem that is best handled by the community and public health agencies rather than by the individual homeowner. Because breeding places for mosquitoes are often situated at considerable distance from the place of annoyance, we look to these public agencies to address these situations for us. Unfortunately, many of these programs are extremely limited or, in many communities do not exist at all. On a very local basis, such as your home, business or yard, proper application of materials to surrounding vegetation where the adult mosquitoes rest can offer control for several hours or longer. The myth perpetuated to the public, is that electric bug zappers, ultrasonic repelling devices and citronella candles can offer effective mosquito control. Such methods have little or no effect to relieving the stress of mosquito attacks around structures. Others, claim to attract mosquitoes by mimicking body heat or by generating carbon dioxide (which is a strong attractant for mosquitoes). These devices often make the situation worse by attracting many more mosquitoes than they kill, in effect drawing the mosquitoes to your property!