The mosquitoes show up just as the chicks are growing fast and need lots of energy. Fish also feed on mosquitoe larvae, though Danks points out that mosquitoes and fish prefer their water in different forms. The fish benefit when the mosquitoes are so abundant that plenty of dead adults fall into the water, offering themselves up as fish food for hungry grayling and char. The next time you are contemplating a swarm of mosquitoes plastered to your screen door or the netting on your tent fly, waiting for an invitation to come into dinner, try remembering where you have chosen to live. Mosquitoe larvae feed on bacteria that grow on fine organic particles, such as those produced by decomposing plants.
Plants decompose so slowly here that mosquitoes have a smorgasbord of goodies from which to choose.
While we tend to think of mosquitoes as bloodsuckers thriving on our red corpuscles, mosquitoes also delicately sip on nectar. Both males and females will sip nectar from willows, flowers and other plants to get the energy they need to fly. Also many kinds of mosquitoes rarely attack humans, feeding on birds or other animals instead. Female mosquitoes look for a red-blooded victim after mating. While some mosquitoes can produce eggs without a blood meal, for most of the common varieties of mosquitoes, no blood means no eggs.