People who live in hot humid climates become familiar with the high-pitched whine that mosquitoes on the prowl can make, especially in the quiet of the night.
Some people can make a sport of allowing a mosquito to land on the skin and be lulled into sucking blood before they are splattered dead with a vengeance.
There are different species of mosquitoes and they can be found in almost all places of the globe.
Regardless of specie however, all mosquitoes go through four stages in their life cycle, from egg to larva to pupa to a full-grown adult mosquito.
The lifespan of a mosquito is quite short.
A female may live from 3 - 100 days while a male may last from about 10 - 20 days during which period they may get to feast on human blood, their favorite source of sustenance, a good number of times.
A female mosquito can lay up to 250 eggs at a time, usually after gorging on your blood to provide enough nutrients for all these eggs.
The eggs are usually laid on the surface of any stagnant body of water.
Among the favorite places for laying eggs are ponds, moats, marshlands, vases or flowerpots inside the house, any place with water where they can germinate until they are hatched which is only about 48 to 72 hours.
Mosquitoes cannot thrive in fast moving bodies of water like rivers or streams.
Once a mosquito egg hatches, it becomes a larva or more commonly known as a "wriggler," a longish creature like a pin with a head and a tail.
They can be seen actively wriggling to the surface and down to the bottom of the body of water, they have been born into.
After five or six days, they enter the pupa stage with a more pronounced head and after two or three more days are ready to metamorphose into the adult mosquito as we know them.
At the pupa stage, they no longer wriggle but instead somersault from the top of the water to the bottom.
Generally, mosquitoes eat plant nectar, honey dew or any other sugary substances.
But their favourite, especially the females, is human blood.
Some species are also known to bite and suck the blood of birds or other animals such as dogs and horses.
The females "bite" using a pair of very thin tubes through which they drip a pain suppressor mixed with their saliva into the bloodstream and then suck your blood.
So you really do not feel pain while a mosquito bites and sucks your blood.
An anti-coagulant is also introduced into your system through this same tube to keep the blood flowing.
A female mosquito, after gorging on your blood is now fortified to start the four-stage life cycle of the mosquito all over again.
Because they tap into a person's blood, mosquitoes are known to be transmitters of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis and yellow fever among humans.
Mosquito-borne diseases cause the most damage among men, especially those who live in the tropics.
Mosquito bites can also cause severe irritation among humans and can be easily seen as red rounded welts on the skin.
Among animals, mosquito bites can also cause dog heartworms, the West Nilevirus and equine encephalitis.
To control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, a vigorous campaign to break the lifecycle of the mosquito must be launched.
This can be done by spraying insecticides on slow-moving bodies of water and by getting rid of any containers that may contain stagnant water where they can breed.
However, the easiest and most convenient method of killing mosquitoes is the mosquito misting system.
A mosquito misting system is installed on your property and automatically programmed to spray for these pests early in the morning and again in the evening.
This method is consistent and leaves you free to enjoy your yard without worrying about mosquitoes infesting your property.