Here's a primer on the pest, and how to protect yourself. In summer, each egg can reach adulthood within a week and start the reproductive cycle again. The eggs hatch within 24 hours into larvae, which spend the first one to two weeks of their lives in water, breathing through a siphon and eating microorganisms that float by. After two days, the pupal skin splits and a damp adult mosquito emerges. It spreads its wings to dry, finds a mate and, if it's female, sets off in search of a snack.
Males die soon after mating.
And you thought West Nile virus was the worst they could come up with. West Nile, a Third World pathogen that arrived in New York last summer, is just one of the disease organisms that hitch- hike in mosquitoes on their way to infecting humans. Collectively, mosquitoes cause more human deaths than any other creature. There's a chance that mosquitoes can be held responsible for sickle cell anemia - and for helping to encourage the slave trade. Residents of Central Africa, where malaria is endemic, have evolved a minor genetic mutation that protects them against the mosquito-borne disease.