The females are the problem. Female mosquitoes produce 100 to 300 eggs at a time and, over the course of a 30-day life, lay as many as 3,000 eggs. Every three to five days, a female pricks the flesh, drinks about five millionths of a liter of blood, and lays her eggs. Sometimes, mosquitoes drink until they burst. The swelling and itch of a typical mosquito bite come from the insect's saliva.
Mosquitoes love warm weather and bodies of water where they can breed.
They also love human perspiration, breath, and body heat. Developed by USDA researchers in the 1950s and first used by the military in 1956, it is the active ingredient in 97 percent of mosquito repellents on the market today. Folkloric remedies abound. Some people believe that ingesting garlic and vitamin B1, which then exude from the pores, repels bugs. Such are the offerings from the network nation for the new fall season.