Pestering mosquitoes are out and about in Durban’s humid climate
The elephant mosquito is beneficial to have around your house.
HOT summer days bring out the mosquito which is responsible for many sleepless and itchy nights.
Sometimes it feels like there is just no controlling them, natural or otherwise. But, believe it or not, mosquitoes have many natural enemies, being an important part of the food chain.
The elephant mosquito, Toxorhynchites, is not an elephant sized mosquito, nor does it drink the blood of elephants, in fact it doesn’t drink blood of any sort.
It is metallic blue in colour and about two or three times larger than the usual blood suckers such as the invasive Asian tiger mosquito. While it looks like a supersized mosquito that can suck you dry of blood, there is way more to it than meets the eye.
According to Warren Dick these mosquitoes are our friends. Their larvae feed on the larvae of the mosquitoes that bite us, such as the Asian tiger mosquito.
As adults, the elephant mosquito only feeds on flower nectar, so the only reason why it will hang around you is if you smell sweet.
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Mosquitoes mate in mid-air and the male and female synchronise their wing beats together. The eggs are dropped into water from a distance and take between 40 to 60 hours to hatch. Once hatched, the larvae begin hunting and eating other mosquito larvae.
“This is the species of fly that you want to have in your garden to control some of the pests,” said Warren.
Contact him to have some of your interesting spiders, snakes or other wildlife identified. Call or WhatsApp him on 072 211 0353. Follow the conversation on Facebook, Warren’s Small World.
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