Mosquitoes

                There are over 150 species of mosquitoes in the United States.  Some are able to fully develop from eggs in less than a week.  Most take 10-14 day to reach maturity but what is important is they grow rapidly.  Mosquitoes need water and high levels of moisture to sustain themselves.  Although female mosquitoes may live for up to a year, most die in the season they were born.  Mosquito populations are able to continue from year to year because one stage is able to overwinter and start their cycle again the next spring.  It may en the adult, the pupa, the larva or the egg which is needed.  Each species has different winter survivors.  Some adult females don’t need a blood meal to begin to reproduce.  In general, male mosquitoes live a short time.   Most mosquitoes lay several hundred eggs and are able to generate huge populations in a short period of time.  Although standing water is the prime location for them to reproduce, there are many locatoins around the home that afford fertile egg laying areas. Such places include water in the bottom of planters, drainage streams, street sewers which don’t drain completely, rain barrels, buckets of water, swimming pools, drain lines from rain gutters, old tires, mulch around the home, shrubs, trees, firewood, slow moving water, small decorative ponds for pet fish, bird baths, water accumulating around windows or doors, water accumulating from an automatic sprinkler system, pet water dishes, leaks around water pickets and just about anywhere water is used or is able to accumulate during the warm summer months any where in the country.  Mosquitoes need water to reproduce.   They will readily move to moist, shady areas under decks, around pools, in garages, in dense shrubbery or flowers, any kind of ivy, holes or nooks of trees, water in a clogged rain gutter or simply the water on a leaf o shrubs which are being watered during the hot summer months.