If you live in the United States, we're sure you've had numerous personal encounters with these critters circling your head while you swat frantically. As if their buzzing and bites aren't enough, mosquitos also are responsible for transmitting many diseases including malaria and St. Louis encephalitis in man, equine encephalomyelitis in horses, and heartworm disease in dogs and cats. This article will explain the life cycle of mosquitos and how it affects disease transmission.
Mosquitos are insects, thus related to lice, fleas and flies.
Mosquitos have six legs, a pair of wings, compound eyes, large antennae and that problematic proboscis with which the females suck blood. To make them even more pesky, it's no help that some female mosquitos can hibernate during the winter and lay their eggs in spring. They generally travel for about 2 miles from their breeding grounds, or even further if blown by the wind. All mosquitos need water as a place where they can lay their eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae about 3 days after being laid.