Hobbies And Interests
Food Source
Fish feed heavily on immature mosquitoes in freshwater. Though most fish feed on a number of water organisms the mosquito fish is a very specialized fish species which is used in rice fields and public swimming pools in some countries as a control mechanism for the mosquito population. Many land creatures, sometimes called insectivores, also feed heavily on adult mosquitoes. Spiders, lizards, salamanders and frogs all use mosquitoes as a major food source. Birds and bats are both creatures of the air who feed on mosquitoes. While bats feed on a large variety of flying insects, there are birds, like martins, who feed almost exclusively on mosquitoes.
Waste Consumer
Mosquito larva feed on decaying matter in the water. They clean water sources, eliminating the waste matter from other protozoa, dead bugs, dead fish, plant foliage and algae that is breaking down. Because mosquitoes tend to feed on the most dominant protozoa in water, they are responsible for maintaining protozoa diversity and balance in the water they inhabit. Mosquito larva can also clean potentially dangerous bacteria from a water source.
Spread Disease
Mosquitoes carry a number of serious diseases. A female mosquito siphons blood from its victims to gain the protein necessary to lay eggs. When it punctures the skin of a victim with its proboscis, it releases a small amount of anti-coagulant saliva into the wound then sucks blood in. If the previous blood source carried a disease, the mosquito can carry it on its proboscis to the next person or animal it bites. According to the Central Massachusetts Mosquito Control Project, mosquitoes have killed more people than famine, war and natural disaster combined. Diseases commonly spread by mosquitoes include yellow fever, West Nile virus, malaria, encephalitis and dengue fever.
Pollinator
Male mosquitoes and female mosquitoes who are not egg laden feed primarily off flower nectar. While sticking their long proboscis down into the center of the flower to drink the nectar they also come in contact with the flower's pollen centers. They then carry the pollen to the next flower they feed from, making them an important pollinator for certain plants. Grasses, goldenrod and orchids all depend on mosquitoes significantly for reproduction. Specifically the blunt-leafed bog orchid is pollinated only by mosquitoes and would rapidly go extinct without them.