Monthly Archives: April 2023

We thought it would be fun to gather a group of interesting facts about mosquitoes, that you may not know, into one list. There is far more to the mosquito than meets the eye, and each year we continue to learn more and observe more about their behavior. So here are 29 facts you may not know:

• There are over 3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world. Only about 200 bites.
• Texas has the highest number of mosquito species at 85, while West Virginia has the fewest at 26.
• Male mosquitoes do not bite. It is only the female one that sucks your blood and gets the protein from it. This protein helps the mosquitoes to develop their eggs.
• Mosquitoes feed mainly on plant nectar.
• Mosquitoes cannot regulate their body temperature, so they will shade from the sun during the day.
• A female mosquito can drink 3 times her body weight in blood.
• Mosquitoes prefer the blood of horses or birds or cattle to humans.
• Mosquitoes have been around since the Jurassic period. They have been on Earth for over 210 million years!
• Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on the planet, far more so than sharks.
• Mosquitoes can spread several life-threatening diseases including West Nile, Dengue, and Malaria.
• Many mosquitoes don’t die from a freeze. Instead, they hibernate and reawaken once temperatures climb over 50 degrees.
• A mosquito egg can lay dormant for up to 10 years, and hatch once water touches it.
• All mosquitoes need water to breed.
• A mosquito spends the first 7-10 days of its life in water.
• Mosquitoes live up to 6 months (the majority live 2-3 weeks).
• When mosquitoes hatch out of the pupae they first breed before the female searches for a blood meal. She then lays her eggs and only then will settle to feed from nectar.
• The female mosquito lays her eggs in stagnant water, 300 at a time. Only a teaspoon will do.
• Mosquitoes beat their wings 500-600 times per minute. When mating they will synchronize their wings.
• Mosquitoes only fly 1.5 miles per hour.
• Mosquitoes mostly keep to 6-8 feet above ground. They can fly up to 25’ high but they are not strong fliers and cannot manage the breeze well.
• Mosquitoes generally fly 2-3 miles at best (some saltmarsh mosquitoes can fly 100 miles, however).
• Mosquitoes use several methods to locate a blood meal. They first detect CO2 plumes, which they can do from 75’ away.
• Once a mosquito gets closer it turns to smell to home in on a victim. Sweat, beer, and a host of other odors can make us more attractive.
• Movement also attracts mosquitoes.
• When they are close mosquitoes turn to heat sensing to find us to bite.
• Mosquito traps don’t work well as they do not emit heat. They attract mosquitoes into your yard but, if you are outside, they will find you first.
• Bug zappers don’t kill mosquitoes. The light attracts them in, but they won’t fly into it. The same is true for outside lights you turn on at night.
• When the female bites she inserts her proboscis into our skin. Her saliva helps the multiple tubes inside this to slide through our skin. It also has a mild pain-killing property, to help her go undetected, and has anti-coagulant properties.
• The bumps and itch that result from a bite are the result of a common allergy to saliva. Some lucky people don’t have a reaction.

We make outside fun again by keeping mosquitoes and other outdoor pests away! Give us a call today at 281-815-0228 for a free quote!

While our most popular mosquito service is our barrier service, we have many tools in our tool belt to help our customers manage their mosquito population. Every yard is different, and sometimes there is very little barrier for us to treat, while other times drainage systems under the ground or outside the yard make it difficult to access all the larvae and breeding sites.

Many of our customers prefer the use of all-natural products in their yard while combating mosquitoes. A downside to these is that they don’t last quite as well as synthetic options in our heat and with strong rains. The In2Care trap is an eco-friendly option that puts the mosquitoes to work in ensuring they don’t live on your property.

The In2Care trap is excellent in the management of the Aedes mosquitoes, including the Aedes aegypti, pictured here, and Asian Tiger mosquito. The Asian Tiger has a tell-tale black and white striped coloration, and they are typically larger than other mosquitoes, very aggressive and you will see them during the day. Aedes mosquitoes are container breeders, meaning they look for anything from a hole in a tree stump to a bucket or pot, that is holding water and they lay their eggs inside – mostly man-made containers. The In2Care trap mimics this container – providing water and shade, which is exactly what the female mosquito is looking for.

Mosquito Joe installs the traps throughout the yard, taking care to place them in the shade in likely locations for mosquito activity. A sachet is installed inside the trap and water is added. This water attracts the female mosquitoes when they are ready to lay their eggs. To do so, she will land on the side of the floater installed within the trap and lay her eggs on to the water. Those eggs will hatch into larvae which will wriggle around in the water until they start developing into become pupae. It is at this point that they will die.

But this is not the main purpose of the trap. It does far more, and that’s what makes it so exciting. When the female lands on the floater she picks up the biological fungus in the sachet and carries it off with her. She spreads that fungus to the places she lands – other egg-laying sites in particular. When she lands in these areas she kills the larvae there (when they pupate). She also spreads it to male mosquitoes when she breeds with them. A few days after landing on the floater she dies from contamination, but not before spreading the fungus to other areas of the yard for other mosquitoes to pick up and spread. In this way, the mosquitoes do all the work.

The fungus is not toxic to birds or mammals, but only insects. Taken to the In2Care website, “The larvicide deployed in the trap specifically targets mosquito larvae and is not toxic to higher organisms in this low concentration. For example, in other products, this larvicide has even been approved by WHO for use in drinking water. Contaminated females will only spread tiny amounts of larvicide (a few micrograms) to other artificial small water bodies, which limits any risk for other aquatic organisms and fish.”

If you want to learn more, this video and this video provide a great overview, while this one provides more insight into how it works.

Mosquito Joe of NW Houston will install the traps in your yard, and then manage them by replacing the sachets at each visit. Combining the In2Care system with our barrier service provides customers with our supreme protection service – taking care of the Aedes (In2Care) and the Culex and others (barrier service) with both options working together. Give us a call or text to learn more and we will be glad to give you a free quote and answer your questions – 281-815-0228.