Where Do Mosquitoes Get Their Diseases?

Series Summary

Insects are small invertebrates that can be real pests. Including flies, mosquitoes, bees and wasps, bugs tend to annoy humans with their bites, stings and buzzing. However, each insect plays an important role in nature, whether it be to pollinate flowers, produce honey or prey on other pests. All in all, some insects can be quite beneficial to nature's cycle. In this free video series, a teacher provides information on mosquitoes, mosquito bites and the lives of mosquitoes. Find out where mosquitoes get the diseases they carry, where mosquitoes live, and learn about the effect of mosquitoes on human life. Discover interesting and helpful facts about mosquitoes in these free videos.

Video Transcript

"Malaria, Yellow Fever, West Nile Virus what do they all have in common? The mosquito. The mosquito is what we call a vector. That means that it carries a disease causing organism from one animal to another. Sometimes even from one infected human to another infected human. I'm Janice Creneti and I've been teaching people about the environment for over 20 years and I am here to talk to you today about where do mosquitoes get their diseases. I mean how do they get contaminated to begin with? What you need to understand is that the female species feed on blood. Now most people think that they do this to stay alive and to eat but that is actually not why they do that. They need the blood to have enough iron to properly produce their eggs. So the female species are flying around looking for a blood meal and in fact if you look closely at this mosquito you will see the belly full of blood right there and you will see the mouth part the proboscis sticking into the skin to get that blood. What happens is when this mosquito is feeding any disease causing organisms that are in the blood stream can move up this proboscis which is basically like a straw into the body of the mosquito usually hanging around the mouth parts. When that mosquito goes to stick its proboscis back into another person any of that infectious material is going to be transferred back into their bloodstreams. That is one of the reasons that malaria can be transferred from one person to another by a mosquito. Now there are lots of ways to control mosquitoes. Some countries spend millions and millions of dollars working on mosquito control. It is one of the biggest health issues in developing nations, but it is possible. I'm Janice Creneti and this is where do mosquitoes get their diseases?"