What are the diseases caused by mosquito bites?

Since earliest times, mosquitoes (Culicidae) have been insect pest to man. Of the more than 3500 kinds, most are blood sucking pests on mammals and birds. Many species are carriers of dangerous diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, West Nile, hemoragic fever, dog heartworm, equine encephalitis and dengue fever.

Mosquitoes live and grow in wet climates all over the world. They are even found in the swampy tundra during Arctic summers. In the tropics, yellow fever is spread when the Aedes mosquito carries the virus from one fever victim to another. Some mosquitoes, as the common Culex species, do not carry diseases but do produce itchy spots from the skin puncture and saliva on the skin of human and domestic animals.

SOME FACTS ABOUT MOSQUITOES

• Mosquitoes can fly at a speed of one mile (1,609 m) per hour.
• Male mosquitoes don’t bite humans – only the females do.
• There’s no evidence that mosquitoes can transmit the HIV virus or AIDS.
• Most mosquitoes live only about 2 to 3weeks.
• More than 1,000,000 people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases.