How much do mosquitoes reproduce in a few weeks

Don't spare a single mosquito in March or else a few million mosquitoes will be roaming your garden a few months later.

Once upon a time there was a tiger mosquito, it was autumn and it was cold. The decrease in the hours of light made her numb, making her slow and distracted. He no longer looked much like the insect that acts as a perfect war machine during the summer. The tiger mosquito, like other mosquito species, is able to reproduce thanks to the blood sucked from the capillaries of its prey. Thanks to highly sophisticated sensors, it is able to find human and animal targets by identifying the heat and carbon dioxide emitted by the organisms. It then locates the superficial blood vessels with deadly accuracy and attacks them with its mouthparts. The tiger mosquito is very fast: first it injects its own saliva to thin the blood and locally anesthetize the victim, then it sucks enough blood to have the proteins necessary to complete the development of the eggs. It is at this moment that he could infect the victim with diseases of which he is a vector such as Chikungunya, Dengue or the Zika virus that recently appeared in Brazil and is spreading rapidly throughout the world.

But let's go back to our mosquito, after a shy flutter numb from the cool autumn its perfect instinct leads it to look for a protected place for its last eggs. Found some plastic lids behind a tool shed, mother mosquito releases her load of 60 eggs (they lay 40 to 80).

mosquito containers

The insect's instinct always plays a fundamental role, the mother mosquito will in fact choose a sheltered place, able to protect the eggs from the rigors of winter where probably when nature awakens with the arrival of spring it will be flooded with the precious water essential to make hatch the eggs.

The tiger mosquito is a species which, unlike others, survives the winter as eggs. This is good for her but bad for us. The eggs are in fact very resistant, they can survive even at temperatures many degrees below zero. They are not afraid of insecticides or predators. They can remain dormant even for years and it is very probable that sooner or later, once they get wet, they will hatch giving birth to a swarm of other dangerous tiger mosquitoes.

The tired tiger mosquito after this last effort moves away and disappears forever swept away by the first cold winds from the north. It's November, everyone is starting to think about Christmas, about skiing, about panettone. The visits to this site are close to zero and only a few times the mind flies to the hot summer afternoons during which the children have to run away from the garden or from the small parks because they are attacked by swarms of tiger mosquitoes.

The eggs laid in the plastic cover behind the tool shed are always there, still, resistant, indestructible. In January, temperatures go below zero, then it snows and temperatures drop again. But the eggs, even better protected by the recently fallen snow, continue their winter rest. Epiphany is long gone, February has passed. The most far-sighted begin to think about where to book their summer holidays.

By now the cold has passed, March begins and the first warm days make the mimosas bloom, the grass begins to grow again colored by young daisies. Then the average temperatures begin to be above 10 degrees and the daily hours of light more than twelve. The abundant spring rains are coming and it's just about time that the tiger mosquito eggs that have survived the winter in the lid behind the tool shed are submerged in water, as you can see by consulting the mosquito calendar.

There are 60 eggs but we will follow only 1, the 23rd in order of deposition, placed right in the corner of the lid. Covered by water, it "awakens" and hatches giving birth to a larva, which then, continuing the reproductive cycle, becomes a pupa and finally an adult. This happens in about a week.

Week 1

Egg number 23 has grown into a young and vigorous adult female tiger mosquito. Let's not forget about the other 59 eggs and assume that there are now 30 male tiger mosquitoes and 30 female tiger mosquitoes around.

Let's give the mosquitoes a few days to get to know each other and mate, once mated the females have nothing else in mind than getting a blood meal. Then you will be stung by a female tiger mosquito that until a few days before was resting as an egg in your plastic lid. The interval between the blood meal and spawning varies between 3 and 5 days.

The female mosquito number 23 lays 60 eggs in a manhole that the Municipality, in March, is careful not to treat with larvicide. After which she leaves for a new mating.

It is estimated that the female tiger mosquito can live in the wild for about two to three weeks and therefore, our ex egg friend well and is not squashed by a slipper or eaten by a few swallows (but are there still any?), it can lay from 140 to 240 eggs during its existence.

Week 2

Female mosquito number 23 becomes a mother, her first generation of eggs hatches giving birth to 30 new female tiger mosquitoes and as many males. The 30 female mosquitoes follow in their mother's footsteps by mating and looking for a blood meal.

However, female mosquito number 23 does not stop here and in these same days she lays a second burst of 60 eggs, ironically in the same lid that housed her throughout the winter. It is not clear how she acts as a mosquito but it is known that she knows how to recognize previous oviposition places as safe and more suitable than others. She then she leaves for a new mating.

Week 3

The female mosquito number 23 is approaching the end of her days and as her last satisfaction she becomes a grandmother. His first generation of 30 female mosquitoes gives birth to about 900 new female mosquitoes who continue to do what nature has written into their DNA, reproduce!

Before dying, however, the female mosquito number 23 lays her third volley of eggs and then dies, ending her prolific life.

Let's try to do the math.

After less than 2 months, therefore towards the beginning of June, our mosquito number 23 will be responsible for the presence of more than 70,000,000 mosquitoes. And we have not counted her 29 sisters.

Do you still think that prevention can be useless for you to enjoy the garden in the summer?