Mosquitoes are considered the most dangerous creatures on the planet, responsible for more human deaths each year than sharks, snakes, bears and lions combined.
Mosquitoes have killed more humans than any war in history according to an online slideshow from the Science Channel.
Physical activity ups the risk for bites by as much as 50%. Working out builds up lactic acid in your sweat, making you more appealing.
Type O blood types are bitten twice as much as Type A. Type B is somewhere in the middle.
Mosquitoes use heat sensors around their mouth-parts to detect the warmth of your body (actually the blood inside it) to home in on their target.
Dark clothing attracts mosquitoes. They are drawn to heat, and darker clothes retain more heat than light-colored clothing. Colors to avoid – black and navy blue.
Only female mosquitoes bite because they need the protein found in blood to nourish their eggs. Male mosquitoes don’t bite, but feed on fruit and plant nectar.
Mosquitoes are known from as far back as the Triassic Period – that’s 400 million years ago.
A female mosquito can lay as many as 300 eggs in one go and produce up to 3,000 offspring during her entire life span.
Just one bottle of beer can significantly boost your risk of being bitten, according to a study published in Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. Researchers suspect it’s because drinking beer increases the ethanol in your sweat, and ups your body temperature.
In another study, mosquito biting activity was shown to increase by 500% during a full moon.
Pregnant women get bitten about twice as much as the rest of us. The body temperature of pregnant women is a degree warmer than everyone else, and they exhale 21% more carbon dioxide (CO2), a known mosquito attractant.