Without doubt only the most dedicated of entomologists and the most fervent followers of Buddha can honestly say that they like mosquitoes. The others of us in the world loathe them. The word 'mosquito' comes from either the Spanish or the Portuguese and means 'little fly'. They live in most countries throughout the world and are or have been to blame for spreading various diseases throughout history.
Malaria is the disease most commonly connected with mosquitoes and at one time malaria was endemic in Europe. Even London was a malarial city until they drained the marshes to create room for more housing a couple of hundred years ago. Until a hundred years ago, malaria was not thought to be connected with mosquitoes, it was thought to be brought on by 'bad air' ('mal aria').
Mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects, or at least the females are, that are still responsible for spreading many diseases throughout the animal kingdom. That is correct! They do not merely affect humans. Dogs in particular have a pretty hard time from mosquitoes.
For a substantial part of their lives, mosquitoes happily drink nectar from flowers like bees do, but when the female is pregnant, she needs animal protein to produce eggs. This is what she obtains from us and other animals. The male never has to drink blood.
It is when the female is drawing a little blood, that an infected mosquito inadvertently deposits a couple of parasites into the host's blood stream, which could cause infection with malaria, dengue, encephalitis or many other diseases that are spread by parasites.
Not all bites from infected mosquitoes bring about sickness. In the case of malaria for instance, it has been suggested that a healthy person can fight off the parasites injected by up to fifty mosquitoes in a twenty-four hour period. After that though, the parasites grow in number too rapidly for our defences and reach the organs that they want to inhabit.
When a non-infected mosquito draws blood from an infected human, that mosquito can pass the parasites on to other non-infected humans. It is considered that most mosquito bites happen indoors whilst the person is asleep. Therefore, the WHO and other agencies have been distributing mosquito nets treated with pesticide in Africa, where most victims of mosquito borne infections live.
However, there is a concern that treating the difficulty in this fashion might make some sorts of mosquito immune to the insecticide or might even raise the likelihood of being bitten outdoors. There have been comparable problems in Cambodia. Until recently, it took three days of hospitalization to cure a patient of malaria, but in one area of Cambodia it now takes five days.
Doctors treating patients in that region say that this is a very worrying development. It is thought that if this local development spreads, then it could result in the deaths of millions of Africans again.
Most mosquitoes do not fly far. Most mosquitoes never go over two kilometres from where they hatched out; some move only a couple of metres away, although others can fly some 5 or 10 kilometres, and a very few species will even fly up to 50 kilometres, assisted by the wind, from their pupal locations.
Malaria is the disease most commonly connected with mosquitoes and at one time malaria was endemic in Europe. Even London was a malarial city until they drained the marshes to create room for more housing a couple of hundred years ago. Until a hundred years ago, malaria was not thought to be connected with mosquitoes, it was thought to be brought on by 'bad air' ('mal aria').
Mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects, or at least the females are, that are still responsible for spreading many diseases throughout the animal kingdom. That is correct! They do not merely affect humans. Dogs in particular have a pretty hard time from mosquitoes.
For a substantial part of their lives, mosquitoes happily drink nectar from flowers like bees do, but when the female is pregnant, she needs animal protein to produce eggs. This is what she obtains from us and other animals. The male never has to drink blood.
It is when the female is drawing a little blood, that an infected mosquito inadvertently deposits a couple of parasites into the host's blood stream, which could cause infection with malaria, dengue, encephalitis or many other diseases that are spread by parasites.
Not all bites from infected mosquitoes bring about sickness. In the case of malaria for instance, it has been suggested that a healthy person can fight off the parasites injected by up to fifty mosquitoes in a twenty-four hour period. After that though, the parasites grow in number too rapidly for our defences and reach the organs that they want to inhabit.
When a non-infected mosquito draws blood from an infected human, that mosquito can pass the parasites on to other non-infected humans. It is considered that most mosquito bites happen indoors whilst the person is asleep. Therefore, the WHO and other agencies have been distributing mosquito nets treated with pesticide in Africa, where most victims of mosquito borne infections live.
However, there is a concern that treating the difficulty in this fashion might make some sorts of mosquito immune to the insecticide or might even raise the likelihood of being bitten outdoors. There have been comparable problems in Cambodia. Until recently, it took three days of hospitalization to cure a patient of malaria, but in one area of Cambodia it now takes five days.
Doctors treating patients in that region say that this is a very worrying development. It is thought that if this local development spreads, then it could result in the deaths of millions of Africans again.
Most mosquitoes do not fly far. Most mosquitoes never go over two kilometres from where they hatched out; some move only a couple of metres away, although others can fly some 5 or 10 kilometres, and a very few species will even fly up to 50 kilometres, assisted by the wind, from their pupal locations.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several topics, but is currently concerned with work on mosquito bite treatment problems. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Mosquito Bite Swellings.
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