–by Dr. Cassandra Olds–Livestock & Veterinary Entomology
Mosquito larvae develop in standing bodies of water and they don’t need a lot of water to thrive. Female mosquitoes mate shortly after emerging from the water (Figure 1),
after blood feeding they will lay a clutch of eggs on the water’s surface. Mosquito larvae go through three stages, called instars. Each instar gets sequentially bigger before finally turning into the pupal stage. From the pupa, an adult emerges leaving the aquatic environment for the air. While female mosquitoes feed on blood, male mosquitoes feed on plant nectar and are important pollinators. Look around your house for any standing bodies of water, they need not be large! Common mosquito breeding habitats include flower pot bases, watering cans, abandoned swimming pools, used car tires and even holes in trees! Animal watering troughs can be a prime mosquito development site (Figure 2); in large stock tanks, adding fish to eat the larvae can be a solution.
