We\u2019ve been gone and I didn\u2019t get around to posting this yesterday\u2026but I figured I shouldn\u2019t let this kind of day go by withough mentioning it. So it\u2019s a little late, but\u2026.They\u2019re annoying summertime pests, but mosquitoes are also responsible for spreading malaria \u2014 a disease that kills over half a million people every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, August 20 is World Mosquito Day \u2014 it honors the date when Sir Ronald Ross \u2014 a British army surgeon, working in India, proved that mosquitoes transmit malaria by identifying pigmented malaria parasites in mosquitoes that fed on an infected patient. The discovery revolutionized our knowledge of the disease and led to preventive measures. Ross won the Nobel Prize in 1902. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worldwide, there are nearly 16,000 mosquitoes for every human.
One of the deadliest animals on Earth (search the archives of this blog for more,) mosquitoes cause the deaths of more than 725,000 people every year.\u00a0
There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, but only about 6% of them bite humans \u2014 the rest feed on other animals or plants.
Only female mosquitoes bite, because they produce eggs from blood proteins.
The only place mosquitoes don\u2019t exist is Antarctica.
The lifespan of a male mosquito is 6 or 7 days \u2014 but \u2014 the lifespan of a female mosquito can be up to five months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So even though it sounds like we\u2019re honoring mosquitoes today, we\u2019re not. The day is set aside to honor Sir Ronald Ross. There are a lots of quotes about mosquitoes about their size, irritation, persistence, and so forth. But I think the one I like the best is by Benito Mussolini, who said, \u201cThe best blood will at some time get into a fool or a mosquito.\u201d
So I hope you celebrated World Mosquito Day appropriately\u2026
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We\u2019ve been gone and I didn\u2019t get around to posting this yesterday\u2026but I figured I shouldn\u2019t let this kind of day go by withough mentioning it. So it\u2019s a little late, but\u2026.They\u2019re annoying summertime pests, but mosquitoes are also responsible … Continue reading