--- title: "26 Interesting Facts About Mosquitos" url: https://www.kickassfacts.com/mosquito-facts/ date: 2018-08-31 modified: 2018-08-31 lang: en author: "jazz" description: "Here are 26 Interesting Mosquito facts. 1-5 Mosquito Facts 1. Finnish police found a dead mosquito while searching for a stolen car. They tested the blood from the mosquito's last..." categories: - "Fact List" - "Miscellaneous" image: https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mosquito-article.jpg word_count: 708 --- # 26 Interesting Facts About Mosquitos Here are 26 Interesting Mosquito facts. ## 1-5 Mosquito Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mosquito.jpg) 1. Finnish police found a dead mosquito while searching for a stolen car. They tested the blood from the mosquito's last meal and used it to identify the thief. - [Source](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7795725.stm) 2. Researchers testing insect repellents used a Victoria Secret perfume as a standard, accidentally discovered that it repels mosquitos better than many repellents on the market. - [Source](https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/15/1/140/2583458) 3. Scientists bred extremely sexually attractive male mosquitoes whose offspring are unable to breed. So these mosquitoes will hopefully dominate the mosquito gene pool, and in a generation or two, billions of mosquito larvae will be reproductive dead-ends. - [Source](https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/gm-mosquitoes-set-be-released-brazil-combat-dengue-0/) 4. There are no mosquitos in [Iceland](https://www.kickassfacts.com/40-amazing-iceland-facts/). - [Source](http://icelandmag.is/article/reason-non-existence-mosquitoes-iceland) 5. Mosquitos are the only creature responsible for the [deaths](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-death/) of more humans than humans themselves'. - [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/10/should-we-wipe-mosquitoes-off-the-face-of-the-earth) ## 6-10 Mosquito Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/malaria.jpg) 6. Biologists are fighting malaria using genetically modified mosquitos which are immune and thus incapable of transmitting it. In other words, the easiest way to cure malaria in humans is to cure mosquitoes instead. - [Source](http://researchnews.plos.org/2018/03/12/cutting-down-malaria-with-crispr-mosquito-gene-editing-as-a-new-form-of-transmission-prevention/) 7. Bill Gates once released mosquitos during a Ted Talk, stating that "poor people shouldn't be the only ones to have this experience." - [Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppDWD3VwxVg&feature=youtu.be) 8. To try to combat mosquito outbreaks, [Disney World](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-disney/) monitors coops of “sentinel chickens” that are stationed around the park. If a mosquito-borne virus shows up in the chickens’ blood, Disney doubles down on its bug-slaying efforts in the area. - [Source](https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/06/03/disney-uses-test-chickens-to-help-control-mosquitoes/) 9. A dеvicе was dеvеlopеd that could kill 100 mosquitos per sеcond, up to 100ft away, using infra-rеd motion cеnsoring & a Bluе lasеr. Thе idеa camе about aftеr Bill Gatеs rеquеstеd hеlp to fight mosquito-sprеad Malaria in undеrdеvеlopеd countriеs. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser) 10. Mosquitos prefer certain blood types, and people with the "O" blood type are more likely to get bitten. - [Source](http://scienceline.org/2007/09/ask-knight-mosquitoes/) ## 11-15 Mosquito Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Toxorhynchites_speciosus.jpg) 11. There is a Good Guy Mosquito. Toxorhynchite larvae eat the larvae of other mosquitos. Then grow up to eat fruit. Delicious non-human fruit. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites) 12. The deadly mosquito is actually a very weak flier (1 mph). The American Mosquito Control Association says just a fan can keep them away. - [Source](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/science/a-low-tech-mosquito-deterrent.html) 13. The insecticide"BTI" was discovered when a man stumbled upon a stagnate pond in [Israel](https://www.kickassfacts.com/israel-facts/) where he noticed dead mosquito larvae. Scientists isolated the bacteria strain found in the pond, creating the safest and most effective way of managing and killing mosquito populations throughout the world. - [Source](https://beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/mosquito/documents/BacillusThuringiensisIsraelensisNZ.pdf) 14. In 1929 a "Bat Tower" was built in the Florida Keys to control mosquitos. It was filled with [bats](https://www.kickassfacts.com/interesting-bat-facts/), which promptly flew away never to return. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Key_Bat_Tower) 15. Bug zappers fell out of common use because, for every 10,000 bugs it killed, only eight were found to be mosquitoes. - [Source](http://retradio.com/whatever-happened-to-the-bug-zappers/) ## 16-20 Mosquito Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Anopheles_stephensi.jpg) 16. The Greek name for the Mosquito is Anopheles, translating to "good-for-nothing". - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anopheles) 17. There is a mosquito species that evolved in the London Underground and cannot be found above-ground. - [Source](http://www.gene.ch/gentech/1998/Jul-Sep/msg00188.html) 18. It would take 1,200,000 mosquitos, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human's body of blood. - [Source](http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-many-mosquitoes-drain-person-2016-2?r=US&IR=T) 19. A Japanese [Twitter](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-interesting-facts-twitter/) user had his account permanently suspended for making a death threat against a mosquito. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_suspensions#List) 20. A mosquito's digestive system deteriorates HIV before it can be transmitted to another victim. - [Source](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-a-used-needle-can-tran/) ## 21-26 Mosquito Facts ![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/mosquito-blood-suck.jpg) 21. A mosquito's bloodsucking apparatus consists of six needle-like structures. Two that saw through the skin, two hold the tissue apart, one seeks out and suck blood and one excrete a blood thinning substance. - [Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD8SmacBUcU&feature=youtu.be) 22. "Mosquito Hawks" are not giant mosquitoes (nor hawks) and don't bite or sting or even eat. They live only a few days to breed, then die. - [Source](https://entomologytoday.org/2015/08/17/mosquito-hawk-skeeter-eater-giant-mosquito-no-no-and-no/) 23. Paleontologists found components of red blood cells in a 46-million-year-old fossilized mosquito. - [Source](https://www.smh.com.au/technology/blood-found-in-46millionyearold-mosquito-20131015-2vjed.html) 24. The Malaysian government sprayed DDT to rid infested areas of mosquitos. This caused an ecological imbalance that ultimately forced planeloads of cats to be parachuted into the country. - [Source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636426/) 25. The HMS Wellington introduced mosquitos to the Hawaiian Islands when sailors rinsed our their water barrels in a stream on Maui. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wellington_(1816)) 26. Mosquitos that live in the artic of Canada and Russia fly around in thick swarms and make up a huge part of the biomass there. They pollinate artic plants and are a huge food source for migrating birds. - [Source](https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/aedes_communis.shtml)