{"id":1843,"date":"2016-07-04T08:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T15:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phcprimarycare.org\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2016-06-28T08:12:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T15:12:02","slug":"the-worlds-deadliest-insect-the-mosquito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phcprimarycare.org\/?p=1843","title":{"rendered":"The World’s Deadliest Insect – The Mosquito"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room\u00a0 – Christine Todd Whitman<\/p>\n

Not to confuse, or perhaps to confuse etymology and entomology when you put together the Spanish for fly \u2013 mosca and the diminutive suffix \u2013ito together you get mosquito.\u00a0 A topic, an insect, of great interest in this, the possible summer of Zika.<\/p>\n

The mosquito species of interest are the Aedes species \u2013 aegypti and albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito).\u00a0 The former as a known vector of arboviruses in the United States with a limited geographic range and albopictus as a possible, unquantified vector but with a wider range.<\/p>\n

The range of the mosquito is limited by winter temperatures \u2013 isotherms \u2013 but exceptions exist, particularly in urban areas where species can winter in protected environments.<\/p>\n

In the vector map below by Gardner, et. al<\/a>., the solid circles represent the suitable habitat and relative risk for Aedes aegypti and clear circles Aedes albopictus with larger concentric circles representing higher total estimated relative risk.\u00a0 If you want to be mosquito free, move to Iceland, where both the cold temperatures and weather unpredictability are hostile to establishing a mosquito population.<\/p>\n

The life-cycle of the mosquito runs the typical egg-larvae-pupae- adult stages.\u00a0 The Aedes species can breed in casual puddles such as artificial water containers, cupped leaves, bromeliad axils or notoriously in abandoned spare tires (with the curious physics that have them become upright in marshes).\u00a0 The eggs are also resistant to drying out and can enter diapause for several months if they dry out.\u00a0 The male of the species is a nectar feeding insect as is the female, until it is time to breed.\u00a0 A blood meal is needed to produce eggs.\u00a0 Different species prefer different hosts such as animals, birds, cold-blooded animals, insects, even fish.<\/p>\n

Female mosquitos hunt their hosts by detecting CO2, visual recognition and body chemicals, in particular octenol produced by the host.\u00a0 Some unfortunate people are just genetically predetermined targets for mosquitos (we all know these people if you are not one of them).\u00a0 Preferred targets include type O blood, heavy breathers, those with a lot of skin bacteria, body heat and the pregnant.\u00a0\u00a0 The antennae of mosquitos have 72 types of odor receptors, 27 are represented by chemicals in sweat.\u00a0 The male mosquito has bushy auditory receptors to hear the whine of the female (this paraphrase is from Wikipedia- really).<\/p>\n

Most mosquitoes are crepuscular hunters \u2013 dawn and dusk – ominously the Asian tiger mosquito (a potential Zika vector) is a daytime feeder.\u00a0\u00a0 Upon feeding the mosquito injects saliva as an anticoagulant.\u00a0 This serves as the transmission fluid for arboviruses such as Zika.\u00a0 The irritating and itchy bite is the result of histamine release in response to the bite.<\/p>\n

Next Blog \u2013 How to protect yourself from mosquitos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room\u00a0 – Christine Todd Whitman Not to confuse, or perhaps to confuse etymology and entomology when you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe World's Deadliest Insect - The Mosquito - PHC Primary Care Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phcprimarycare.org\/?p=1843\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World's Deadliest Insect - 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