First of all, mosquitoes are insects, and insects are animals. Thus, mosquitoes are animals, the most dangerous animal facing mankind.
Mosquitoes kill more humans worldwide in five minutes than sharks do in a year.
Only female mosquitoes bite. Both male and female feed mainly on fruit and plant nectar, but the female also needs the protein in blood to help her eggs develop.
There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes. Among them are the Anopheles, Culex pipiens, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (Asian tiger mosquito).
The Straits Times, AFP, Reuters, Shutterstock.com
The Anopheles is a malaria carrier, and the other three are known to spread various forms of encephalitis and dengue.
The World Health Organisation estimates that between 300 and 500 million cases of malaria occur each year – and a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.
A mosquito can drink up to three times its weight in blood. It sucks up blood through its proboscis, which is like a tube.
It would take about 1.2 million mosquito bites to drain all the blood from your body.
Female mosquitoes can lay up to 300 eggs at a time. So, they can reproduce in large numbers.
Reuters, The Straits Times, The New Paper, NEA
The Aedes is the most dangerous in Malaysia. It is the vector for dengue, which killed 336 people in Malaysia in 2015, and Zika virus, which has caused microcephaly in close to 1,600 babies in Brazil.
The mosquito is quite unconquerable. Scientists say that like the cockroach, mosquitoes would probably survive a nuclear war.
