  
1. All
Mosquitoes are not alike
2. Mosquitoes
carry many diseases
3. The Females
thrive on blood
4. Mosquitoes
eat all sorts of things
5. They have
poor eye-sight
6. They live
long enough to create misery
7. People are
not always their favorite target
8. A prolific species
9. They can't
wait to start bugging us
10. They don't
like to travel
11. How do
they find us?
12. The 9:00
to 5:00 Mosquito
13. What's
wrong with bug zappers?
14. What's
wrong with sprays and foggers?
15. How about
Citronella candles and smoking coils?
16. What are
the alternatives?
All Mosquitoes are not alike
Jurassic Park taught us that mosquitoes have been around for 100
million years. In that time they have diversified into 3,000 species
that are very different from one another. Instincts pre-program their
life's behavior, and these programs are constantly refined by
evolution. They have successfully adapted to climates from the arctic
to the equator and developed means of locating indigenous bloodhosts
in each locale: some mosquitoes prefer frogs, others mammals, still
others birds. No product, including mosquito traps, foggers,
pesticides, Citronella candle, smoking coils or DEET, works equally
well on every species of mosquito.
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They carry many diseases
Worldwide, mosquito-borne diseases kill more people than any other
single factor. Mosquitoes can be carriers of malaria, yellow fever,
dengue fever in humans. In the United States, mosquitoes spread
several types of encephalitis. They also transmit heart worms to cats
and dogs.
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The females thrive on blood
Mosquitoes do not feed on blood. The female mosquito requires a blood
meal for development of her eggs.
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They eat all sorts of things
Mosquito adults feed on flower nectar, juices, and decaying matter
for flight energy. The larvae are filter feeders of organic particulates.
The larval and pupal stages can be found in a variety of aquatic
habitats including: discarded containers, tires, temporary woodland
pools, tree and crab holes, salt marshes, and irrigation ditches.
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They have a poor eye-sight
Mosquitoes don't see very well, but they zoom in like a heat-seeking
missile. In the spherical arrangement of their compound eyes, blind
spots separate each eye from the next one. As a result, they can't
see you until they are 30 feet (10 meters) away. Even then, they have
trouble distinguishing you from any object of similar size and shape:
tree stump, 55-gallon drum, etc. When they are 10 feet (3 meters)
away they use extremely sensitive thermal receptors on the tip of
their antennae to locate blood near the surface of the skin. The
range of these receptors increases threefold when the humidity is
high. If you go into mosquito habitat such as forests or wetlands
where mosquitoes can easily see you, protect yourself with a
repellent such as DEET.
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They live long enough to create misery
There are over 170 described species of mosquitoes from North
America. Several species have been accidentally introduced from other
parts of the world. The average life span of a female mosquito is 3
to 100 days. the male lives 10 to 20 days.
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People are not always their favorite target
People are not the primary bloodhosts for mosquitoes, especially in
temperate climates. There are few people near the Arctic Circle, for
example, but millions and millions of mosquitoes. The major mosquito
pests in the Southeast US seem to prefer the host-odor of small
herbivorous (vegetarian) mammals, or birds. Mosquitoes that carry
encephalitis seem to prefer avian (bird) bloodhosts. These mosquitoes
bite people when they get the chance, but they are better at tracking
the scent of animals that are most abundant in their habitat.
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A prolific species
One female mosquito may lay 100 to 300 eggs at a time and may average
1,000 to 3,000 offsprings during her life span. Mosquitoes breed in
standing water, so eliminating standing water on your property
reduces your risk. Areas like rain gutters, tree holes, old buckets
or tires with stagnant water are breeding sites. However, although
you may have taken steps to clear your property, you are subject to
the actions - or inaction - of your neighbors, not to mention wetland
areas in your community
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They can't wait to start bugging us
A mosquito develops from egg to adulthood in 4 to 7 days.
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They don't like to travel
Most mosquitoes remain within a 1 mile radius of their breeding site.
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How do they find us?
Scent, Sight and Heat
Mosquitoes locate bloodhosts by scent, sight and heat. From 100 feet
away (30 meters) mosquitoes can smell your scent, especially the
carbon dioxide (CO2) you exhale. Biting flies are even better; they
can smell their prey from 300 feet (100 meters) away. Because CO2 is
present in the atmosphere (plants take in CO2 and give off oxygen),
mosquitoes respond to higher-than-normal concentrations, especially
when the CO2 is mixed with host-odor. They follow your scent upwind,
and can see you at a distance of about 30 feet (10 meters).
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The 9:00 to 5:00 Mosquito
Aedes aegypti is the scientific name of the mosquito most often used
in laboratory research. It originated in Africa and spread throughout
the tropics. It carries disease and is a major pest because it seems
to prefer omnivorous (eats anything) bloodhosts such as monkeys, apes
and people, and because it is not afraid to make its home indoors.
Three characteristics make Aedes aegypti popular with laboratory
researchers. First, colonies can be maintained in an artificial
environment. Second, it will enter the small chambers of laboratory
equipment most other mosquitoes avoid. Most important, it is active
during the day when laboratory researchers are at work. Although it
is convenient to use, Aedes aegypti laboratory results may not
represent the way mosquitoes behave in your back yard at night.
Outdoor trials in the evening against large populations of native
species are the most reliable test method.
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What's wrong with bug zappers?
They kill beneficial insects, attract mosquitoes but don't kill them,
help mosquitoes find standing water to lay their eggs, and spray
insect fragments into the air. The Ultra Violet (UV) light from
zappers attracts all night-flying insects. Each night zappers kill
about 3,000 beneficial insects such as moths and butterflies, which
pollinate flowers, but only a handful of mosquitoes. A Notre Dame
University study in South Bend Indiana showed that people with a
zapper in their backyard got bit 10% more than people without one
because zappers attracted mosquitoes but did not kill them. UV light
also helps mosquitoes find water where they lay their eggs. When UV
light is reflected off the surface of water it is polarized. Like
polarized sunglasses that reduce glare and help you see objects more
clearly, the mosquitoes follow the polarized light to the water to
lay their eggs. Because they attract large bugs, they are
purposefully designed to explode them so they don't accumulate and
become a fire hazard. Exploding bug-fragments drift on the air.
People and food nearby may be contaminated by insect-fragments from
the zapper.
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What's wrong with sprays and foggers?
Our research shows that 70% of Americans view their backyard mosquito
problem as moderate to severe. The backyard mosquito control method
Americans use most is sprays and foggers - arguably the most
expensive, ineffective and environmentally harmful thing to do!
Sprays are expensive. They are effective for only 2 to 4 hours, then
the mosquitoes are back. Sprays are indiscriminate. They kill every
insect: ladybug, butterfly, praying mantis, earthworm - everything!
Worst of all, mosquitoes that survive come back stronger than ever.
In as little as 6 generations (two months under ideal conditions)
mosquitoes can build up immunity to a pesticide. If you rely on
pesticide sprays and foggers, you will need more and more of them to
do the job, and you will have to use them more and more often. The
best way to make pesticides effective is to minimize their use. Make
them your last choice, not your first choice.
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How about Citronella candles and smoking coils?
Citronella candles and smoking coils repel mosquitoes, but you have
to stay in the smoky plume to be protected. Citronella is an
essential oil of citrus plants. The smoking coils contain pesticides.
Dr. Robert Novak of the University of Illinois tested these products
for ABC News. He reported that when smoke from a coil covered a human
test subject's shin, the mosquitoes flew around the subject's leg and
bit them on the calf!
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What are the alternatives?
You can spray. It will give you relief from mosquitoes - for two
hours. But it will kill every butterfly, ladybug, preying mantis, and
earthworm too!
There are zappers, and trappers with electric. But without
correct UVA+ frequency, they remain ineffective.
Remember, features are not the biggest difference between the QM mosquito
killer and these other products. Where they attempt to kill all the
mosquitoes in an area - an impossible task, in the opinion of almost all
entomologists, the QM insect killer aims at truly protecting people with a double line of
defense. First, the killer, using
heat, little CO2 and powerful suck fan kills thousands of biting insects
(but, most importantly, it draws them away from people).
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