Biologists Think They Know How Mosquitoes First Got Their Thirst For Human Blood

It’s a warm summer’s evening, and you’re relaxing in your garden after a long day. That tranquility is soon disrupted, though, when you realize you've been bitten by a mosquito. Maybe you felt it pierce the skin and swatted it away; more likely, you never noticed it at all, and now your bite is starting to itch. Prior to that, you might not have thought about why these pesky insects crave human blood, but a research paper finally answered the question in July 2020.

Mosquito-Infested Summers

Due to the hot conditions, mosquitoes are particularly bothersome during the summer months, buzzing around yards across the country. As reported by the Mosquito Reviews website, the heat cuts down their life expectancy, which causes them to produce extra offspring. And on top of that, a greater number of eggs start to crack open too.

Thousands of Varieties

In total, the Inverse website claimed that you can find roughly 3,500 different types of mosquito across the globe. To break things down even further, the American Mosquito Control Association also stated that 176 of those are situated in the U.S. But if you’re bitten by the bug, the sting could be the least of your concerns.

Hosting Deadly Diseases

Indeed, certain mosquitoes are known to harbor dangerous diseases that subsequently get passed on when they bite people. Incredibly, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that millions of individuals lose their lives to these ailments annually. Malaria is one of the biggest killers, with the agency unveiling another shocking figure via its website.

Spreading Malaria

Back in 2015 some 438,000 people died from malaria alone, with the WHO noting that Anopheles mosquitoes were capable of spreading the disease. Meanwhile, the Aedes aegypti species carries a range of different illnesses as well. For instance, they can pass on dengue fever, the Zika virus, yellow fever and chikungunya.