Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Diseases carried by mosquitoes

Hello dear readers! Summer pleases us with sunny warmth and vacations, warm rains and picking mushrooms and berries in the forest. Many will agree with me that the joy of summer is overshadowed by hordes of mosquitoes, thanks to which it is impossible to go outside in the evening, and at night to sleep peacefully with open windows. Especially "unlucky" for those who live near water bodies or swamps. These are favorite places where female mosquitoes lay their eggs to continue their kind. Yes, and these blood-sucking monsters are able to fly into the upper floors of houses. But do you know how dangerous mosquito bites are?

Mosquitoes can annoy us not only with their squeaks and painful bites. The main trouble lies in the fact that they are carriers of many dangerous infectious diseases. And today I want to tell you what diseases small, but such annoying insects can reward us with.

IN modern world There are more than 3,000 species of mosquitoes, of which representatives of 100 species live in Russia, mainly mosquitoes of the genus Culex, Aedex, Culiseta, malarial mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles and many others. But for people who are not connected with medicine, the names of mosquitoes are not so important, they are more interested in what they are dangerous and how to deal with them.

Female and male mosquitoes usually feed on flower nectar and plant juices. But many female mosquitoes have mouthparts adapted to pierce the skin of mammals to feed on blood. It has been established that only female mosquitoes feed on blood.

Females from the blood receive the nutrients necessary for the production and deposition of b O more eggs. In addition, plant juices and blood serve as sources of energy due to the sugars (carbohydrates) present in the blood of the victim. And the blood for females is also a source of more concentrated and useful nutrients- lipids and proteins.

The life cycle of mosquitoes includes four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Imago is otherwise an adult. Only an adult can feed on the blood of humans and warm-blooded animals and birds. Although some species of mosquitoes can even feed on the blood of reptiles, amphibians and ... fish.

How does a mosquito find its prey?

Mosquitoes live in swampy and damp places. They prefer to be in dark places in rooms for animals, basements, where it is humid and warm. In houses, they can be seen on windows and walls, during the day in an inactive state, but at night, when it is dark, they fly out and look for their prey. Optimum temperature for them 15-25ºС, at a temperature of 0ºС they fall into a state of stupor.

Female mosquitoes find their prey by the following signs:

• The smell of lactic acid, which is contained in sweat, and which they smell at a distance of several kilometers;
• Carbon dioxide exhaled by a person is felt at a distance of hundreds of meters;
• Thermal radiation and body movement at a distance of several meters;
• The female reacts to light, so she prefers poorly lit places.

Feeling her victim, the female, before starting to drink blood, when biting, along with saliva, introduces a substance (anticoagulant) that prevents blood clotting. It is this substance that causes itching, redness, swelling and pain at the site of the bite. Sometimes this substance can cause an allergic reaction. varying degrees gravity.

What diseases are carried by mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are carriers of many, sometimes very serious infectious diseases, and these mosquitoes are dangerous. Infection occurs through the transmission infected blood from a sick person to a healthy person through bites. Such an infection is called transmissible transmission.

Here are some of the diseases our mosquitoes transmit.

Malaria

The causative agents of malaria - malarial plasmodia are carried by mosquitoes. The disease occurs with fever, chills, an increase in the size of the liver (hepatomegaly), spleen (splenomegaly), and severe anemia.

Previously, this disease was called swamp fever. Currently, up to 500,000 cases of this disease are registered annually in the world, of which an average of 1.5-3 million are fatal. The bulk of malaria cases occur in the countries of Central Africa, where most of the cases are children under the age of 5 years.

On the territory of Russia, malaria is registered in the lower reaches of the Volga, and it is also ill in the countries of the former Soviet republics, Afghanistan, and India.

The incidence of malaria is growing, but single cases of imported malaria are recorded even in those regions where there are no conditions for the habitation of malarial mosquitoes. Due to the cessation of reclamation work and the drainage of marshes, conditions have now been created for the reproduction of mosquitoes, so the incidence of malaria will increase in the near future.

Lymphatic filariasis

Lymphatic filariasis is helminthic invasion humans and animals, caused by nematodes - filariae. Such an invasion is widespread in countries South America, Africa and Asia. Due to the wide geography of tourism, there is a chance of getting this invasion through the bites of local mosquitoes and residents of other countries.

Tularemia is a natural focal disease characterized by severe intoxication, fever, and lymph node damage.

The carrier of the causative agent of tularemia are hares, rabbits, field mice, water rats, and the carriers of infection from them to a healthy person through blood-sucking insects(ticks, mosquitoes, horseflies). Of course, tularemia is possible not only through mosquito bites. They become infected with tularemia even when a person has direct contact with infected animals, for example, when cutting skins, through infected food products and by aspiration, by inhalation of dust during grain threshing.

IN last years The transmissible route of transmission of tularemia through the bites of blood-sucking insects, especially mosquitoes, has become the main one, which is facilitated by the manifestations of weather conditions in the form of a long spring flood, heavy rainfall in the spring-summer period, leading to an increase in the number of mosquitoes and midges, increasing their contact with infected hosts.

Tularemia is one of the most dangerous diseases. It should be noted that for prevention, there are vaccinations against tularemia, which are carried out according to epidemiological indications in regions that are endemic foci of this infection. Outbreaks of tularemia were recorded in the Rostov, Smolensk, Orenburg regions, Bashkortostan, Moscow, etc. And in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2013, more than 800 people were infected with tularemia.

West Nile fever

Carriers from the reservoir of infection - birds and rodents - are also mosquitoes and ixodid ticks. You can read more about this fever and its symptoms in this article.

Yellow fever or amaryllosis

It's spicy hemorrhagic disease transmitted only through mosquito bites. Up to 90% of all diseases occur in Africa and South America. It is considered a particularly severe quarantine disease that occurs with high temperature body and accompanied by bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, damage to the kidneys and liver. Every year, the disease is registered in 200,000 people, of which approximately 30,000 people die.

An interesting fact that I found in the Wikipedia of this disease.

“August 14, 11881, at a public meeting of the Havana Academy, the Cuban physician Carl H. Finlay stated his hypothesis that yellow fever was transmitted a certain kind mosquitoes. Two decades later, fighting a yellow fever epidemic in Havana in 1900, Walter Reed and James Carroll (at the cost of their lives) confirmed it was transmitted by a mosquito bite.Aedesaegipti, and a detachment led by William Crawford Gorgas methodically destroyed all breeding centers of mosquitoes and after 90 days there was not a single case of yellow fever in Havana, for the first time in 200 years.

Against yellow fever in 1937, the American virologist Max Theiler created a vaccine against yellow fever, for which he received in 1951 Nobel Prize about the field of physiology and medicine. Yellow fever vaccinations are still available National calendar preventive vaccinations according to epidemiological indications.

Conclusion

And this is not all infections, the transmission of which occurs with the participation of mosquitoes. There are a lot of these diseases, and even to list them, it will take a lot of time and space in this article. Basically, these are various fevers and encephalitis, which are very difficult, sometimes ending in death.

IN Lately It has already been established that the hepatitis C virus (gentle killer) can be mechanically transmitted by mosquitoes. Scientists are working on the issue of transmission by mosquitoes of the causative agent of Lyme disease - tick-borne borreliosis. The transmission of the HIV virus can be attributed with the same probability. But this is yet to be proven.

Despite the fact that scientists are making a lot of effort to prevent and eliminate diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, these diseases are not becoming less. Because mosquitoes cannot be defeated. If in some year the incidence of these dangerous infections decreases, then the next year, thanks to mosquitoes, these infections again raise their heads. Are mosquitoes dangerous, we figured it out. And how you can get rid of mosquitoes, we will continue the conversation in the next article.

Dear my readers! If this article was useful to you, then share it with your friends by clicking on the social buttons. networks. It is also important for me to know your opinion about what you read, write about it in the comments. I will be very grateful to you.

With wishes good health Taisiya Filippova

Everyone is looking forward to the coming of summer. This is a great time when vacations, trips to resorts, hikes in the forest, overnight stays in the open air and other joys of life begin. But besides all the charms of the warm period of the year, there is one significant drawback - mosquitoes. These insects are able to bite a person painfully, but what is even worse - in some cases, mosquitoes can carry quite dangerous diseases, the fight against which will take a lot of effort and money and may not always end successfully. IN different regions in our country, they are distributed in different ways, the same applies to popular resort destinations. When planning to go somewhere on vacation, it is advisable to take this information into account in order to ensure the safest and most enjoyable trip for yourself.

Of course, many will say that some mosquitoes certainly should not influence the choice of a place for recreation, travel and spoil a person's vacation. But it’s not necessary to change your route due to the presence of mosquitoes - it’s enough just to know about potential danger and stock up elementary means protection, as well as medicines necessary in case of a painful bite. Let us consider in more detail what diseases mosquitoes carry, as well as where they are most common.

mosquito-borne diseases

When a human is bitten, a female mosquito (and only females bite) introduces certain substances into the blood of the victim, which contributes to its more effective saturation. For example, one of them is a special anticoagulant that prevents blood clotting. Among those thus caught in human blood substances may well be infectious diseases. Consider only the most dangerous of them.

Malaria

Mosquitoes are able to carry the causative agent of malaria - malarial Plasmodium. This disease is known to many as swamp fever. It is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• the appearance of fever;
• periodic chills;
• headache;
• nausea;
• general weakness and malaise.

Also, with malaria, hepatomegaly is observed - an enlarged liver, anemia and a number of other dangerous symptoms. Often this disease confused with the common flu, so you need to be very careful in identifying the symptoms and not neglect going to the doctor.

According to existing statistics, about 2 million people die from malaria every year in the world. It is clear that the disease is very dangerous and requires immediate professional medical intervention. Most widespread malaria got into Central Africa, India, but sometimes also found in Russia. Recently, quite sad statistics have been observed - malarial mosquitoes are found even in those regions where, it would seem, they should not have a place at all. Many factors contribute to this state of affairs, in particular, the drainage of swamps, phasing out land reclamation works.

Zika disease

An arbovirus infectious disease, which, although it proceeds quite benignly, can cause significant damage to health. For Zika disease:

• a large thick rash appears on the skin;
• fever is observed;
• heat;
• eye redness and other negative symptoms.

It is mosquitoes that are blamed for the spread of the disease - in recent years, about 4 million cases of infection with the virus have been recorded in the world.

The virus is distributed mostly in Oceania, Africa and South America. In the same Brazil, there is literally a general infection with this disease. Main danger infection is manifested in infants. Thanks to her, microcephaly can develop in babies. The Zika virus is known for being easily picked up by tourists who have visited these regions of the world. Therefore, one should not think that it is so unrealistic to meet this problem in Russia.

Lymphatic filariasis

Like previous diseases that can arise from mosquito bites, this ailment is most common in South America, Africa and hot Asian countries. Since quite powerful tourist trips have been established in these regions, the transmission of the infection is quite possible in other, colder countries.

This is a focal disease, which also occurs with severe fever, intoxication of the whole organism, causing damage lymph nodes. The carriers of the infection are hares, field mice, rats, and the carriers are mosquitoes, ticks, and other animals that feed on blood.

Tularemia was originally distributed in warm countries and rarely seen in our area. But a sharp change in climate, a shift in different seasons, long periods warming and high water, heavy rainfall affected the fact that the infection began to appear more and more often in Russia and neighboring countries.

Yellow fever

Another from the list of dangerous infectious diseases that can be provoked by a mosquito pathogen. The disease is quite acute, characterized by elevated temperature, defeat normal operation liver and kidneys. Especially dangerous symptom yellow fever, also called amaryllosis, is the appearance internal bleeding in the organs gastrointestinal tract. The vaccine against the disease has been developed for a long time and is available to almost every inhabitant of our country. However, don't underestimate possible dangers from yellow fever, because even with the means to combat it, about 200,000 people are infected in the world every year. Of these, approximately 30,000 patients die, so the disease is not as harmless as it might seem.

The prevalence of mosquitoes in Russia

For Russia and the CIS countries, mosquitoes are quite a common phenomenon, which is not given special significance. Even in the presence of a fairly large number of insects from the Anopheles genus (malarial mosquitoes), the risk of infection is minimal here, since the climate of our country does not allow the malarial plasmodium to develop normally in the body of an insect. Malaria mosquitoes are found both in Siberia and in the European part of Russia, on Far East. They are absent only in the coldest regions of Siberia - too low temperature just doesn't let them survive here.

Various types of mosquitoes are present on the territory Russian Federation in excess. According to the latest data, there are more than 90 of them. different types. They are in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in all other regions of the country. Popular resort destinations- Crimea, Abkhazia, Sochi, are also not devoid of these insects.

As for the spread of infectious diseases that blood-sucking mosquitoes can carry, the likelihood of infection with any of the above is quite small. Malaria, yellow fever and other ailments are extremely rare in our country - even 10-20 reported cases of diseases cause a sensation in the media. But because of this, you should not take the problem lightly, because no one is immune from the fact that he will fall into these 20 cases.

Tourism and mosquito infections

The main source of penetration into Russia of any infectious diseases that are transmitted from mosquito bites is tourism and potentially dangerous countries in this regard. Brazil, Africa, India, Oceania - this is where most cases of infection from mosquitoes occur, although in principle there are few of them. Many Russians go on vacation to Turkey, Abkhazia or Thailand. Here they rarely have to deal with the problem of annoying insects. The places themselves for resorts are chosen away from potentially dangerous areas, swamps, necessary efforts to maintain the necessary sanitary and epidemiological situation.

Most resorts in Turkey, which are visited by residents of Russia, do not have problems with mosquitoes. As for Thailand, there are more than enough mosquitoes. To minimize the risks and not feed them with your own blood, you need to be careful in the evening or at night, you can wear a long-sleeved shirt. At night, it is better to close the windows in the room to prevent insects from entering the room. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria or the Zika virus, are occasionally encountered, but do not have a dangerous mass character.

As a conclusion, it should be noted that mosquitoes, as vectors dangerous infections- it's actually real problem, but only for those people who travel a lot in disadvantaged countries in this regard. Living in Russia, you can not be particularly afraid of mosquito bites. The only warning that can be here is the following: in order to avoid problems with any disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes, you need to be attentive to your body and respond in time to emerging painful symptoms. This is the only way to neutralize a possible threat and not harm your health.

They feed on blood, so theoretically they can carry many diseases, the causative agents of which are in the lymph. The most common questions are whether a mosquito can infect AIDS, whether insects can transmit hepatitis. Blood-sucking creatures carry many dangerous diseases - malaria, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and spread helminthiasis. Mosquitoes are most dangerous in tropical, sub tropical countries.

What diseases are carried by mosquitoes

In countries with a hot climate, insect bites and the diseases they carry dies more people than from poisonous snakes, sharks. The bite of a small insect can make a person disabled, lead to paralysis, death. Not all diseases have vaccines and highly effective drugs.

Malaria

The carriers of the disease are contagious malarial mosquitoes. They are found everywhere, even in Russia. They differ from ordinary squeakers in a raised abdomen, because hind limbs longer than the rest. They live in wetlands, near water bodies, in forests with a humid climate.

On a note!

Infectious agents are transmitted to humans with saliva, the latter becomes infected from a sick person. Incubation period after infection lasts from several days to 2 months. Depends on age individual characteristics organism, the strength of immunity.

Plasmodium start to infect human body gradually. Initially dwell in the blood, violating natural processes. Destroy red cells, reduce hemoglobin, lead to weakness, decrease immune protection. Over time, they penetrate the liver, begin to multiply. The entry into the blood of a new generation of plasmodia is accompanied by fever, deterioration in general well-being.

Damage to the bloodstream, liver causes a number of complications:

• fever;
• temperature increase;
• nausea;
• vomit;
• diarrhea;
• indigestion;
• muscle ache.

In the absence of proper therapy, anemia occurs, severe intoxication, a person falls into a coma, dies. However, there are situations when the immune system hold back growth for a while pathogenic microorganisms the symptoms disappear. But exacerbation occurs over several months with more complex symptoms.

Yellow fever

mosquito can infect viral infection, for the treatment of which special preparations No. The most common cases of the disease in Africa, Central America. The carrier and distributor of the virus is the mosquito Aedes Aegypti. The disease can be transmitted through saliva. Outwardly recognizable - they have white dots, stripes on the body, paws.

Initially, the symptoms resemble the FLU, even a sore throat, a runny nose appears. After a few days, the symptoms subside. Microorganisms enter the liver, after a while there is an exacerbation. Added pain under the right rib, liver enlargement, icterus skin, convulsions.

Therapy is aimed at easing painful symptoms. IN difficult situations infection leads to death. If the immune system can defeat the virus, antibodies persist for the rest of life. reinfection not scary.

What diseases do mosquitoes carry?

• Dengue fever;
• Japanese encephalitis B;
• West Nile fever;
• Chikungunya.

The symptoms of the diseases are almost the same, the treatment is symptomatic. The main method of prevention is your own caution, use, timely seeking help from specialists.

On a note!

Manifestations of dangerous diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are similar to many diseases digestive tract. Therefore, when asking for help from specialists in your native country, you must definitely mention your vacation in tropical countries. You could catch the virus there.

What diseases do mosquitoes carry in Russia?

On the territory of our country there is a risk of infection with malaria, yellow fever, but these cases are rare. The most dangerous are ordinary peeping mosquitoes. After their attack, an allergic reaction of varying degrees of intensity appears.

In most cases, manifestations are limited to slight swelling, redness up to 0.5 cm in diameter, and itching. In young children under 1 year of age, people with weak immunity, increased susceptibility to allergies, with sensitive skin blisters appear, large-scale redness,. The condition normalizes on its own or after the use of antihistamines, antiallergic drugs. General symptoms allergies with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea do not occur.

HIV is transmitted from person to person sexually, through blood, and AIDS can also spread through the placenta from a sick mother to her child.

If insects initially bite HIV-infected people, and then immediately sit on a healthy person, there is a possibility of contracting AIDS, but only theoretically. The number of infected cells is very small for the development of the disease.

The mosquito prefers to drink the entire portion of blood from one person at once. For several days, the female sits quietly in a secluded place, then hurries to lay eggs. After that, a repeated bite of a healthy person threatens only, not AIDS. Experts say with confidence that HIV is not transmitted through a mosquito bite. Several tests have been carried out in laboratory conditions regarding AIDS.

Potential for hepatitis

Mosquito-borne diseases are similar in symptoms to viral hepatitis, which affects the liver cells, leads to its atrophy. The disease is transmitted through the blood, less often - sexually, hepatitis A - through dirty hands, contaminated products. Harm from mosquito bites is not associated with the spread of the virus. The patient has stronger allergy symptoms after an insect attack due to a weakened immune system.

How dangerous mosquito bites are depends on which part of the world to analyze. In total, there are more than 3 thousand varieties of these insects, the most dangerous live in the tropics, jungles with hot, humid climate. Bloodsuckers do not transmit hepatitis or AIDS.

Mosquitoes are insane this year. For example, in the Voronezh region there are already 40 residents (of which 33 are children) to the doctor because of the bites of these insects.

The main complaints are allergic reactions: severe itching, swelling of the face and eyelids, as well as scratching and pyoderma (a complication after scratching), anxiety and sleep disturbance in young children, comment in the regional health department.

Mosquitoes are everywhere there - not only in the forest and on the streets, but everywhere in general, they are found even in bread.

One evening I came home, and I started to get hysterical: the hoods were open, and there was not even a squeak in the apartment - a hum. I turned on the light in the kitchen and was horrified: the entire ceiling was full of mosquitoes! Then she went to the bathroom and was completely shocked: all the walls are speckled, the tiles are simply not visible. I grabbed a vacuum cleaner, walked around the rooms to collect insects, but this did not help for long. Apparently, the vents have become a breeding ground for mosquitoes - every day there were more and more of them, - a local resident Alice complains to the media.

According to environmentalists, what is happening is connected with the overflow of rivers - the Don has burst its banks. The situation was aggravated by warm, humid weather - ideal conditions for laying larvae.

Reservoirs are places for the hatching of larvae. If roadside ditches, large puddles, streams do not dry up in the spring, then it breeds there great amount larvae,” explained Marina Krivosheina, an entomologist at the Laboratory of the Institute for Ecology and Evolution Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In Russia, according to the entomologist, mosquitoes of two genera mainly live - kuliks and aedes. They differ in behavior: someone attacks at dusk, someone attacks throughout the day.

We are already accustomed to mosquitoes, so they seem to us an inevitable, but not very big evil. It turns out that this is not always the case (and the residents of the Voronezh region were convinced of this). Few people know how dangerous diseases these annoying bloodsuckers can carry.

dirofilariasis

taxi drivers". A mosquito bites a person - and infects him with the larvae of these worms.

Most often this disease is picked up by cats and dogs, but a person can also become infected. For example, this year the disease was found in a woman in the Kurgan region. Last year, mosquitoes infected six residents of the Omsk region and seven residents of the Voronezh region. In 2016, two residents of Tomsk became infected. These are just the cases that got into the media.

Medical scientists from Simferopol write in detail about dirofilariasis in their scientific work"Human dirofilariasis". It says that in Russia the disease occurs mainly in the south (Volgograd, Rostov region, Krasnodar region). But in recent years, cases of the disease have also been reported where the climate is temperate (Moscow, Ryazan, Lipetsk regions, regions of the Urals and Siberia).

Allergy

Mosquitoes are also dangerous because they can cause allergies. She even has a special name - insect. In general, insect allergies are reactions that occur after "communication" with all insects (wasps, bees, caterpillars, and so on). This happens, according to experts, in about 15% of people. In the case of mosquitoes, their saliva is especially dangerous.

Scientists from the Smolensk State medical university interviewed several dozen respondents to understand how often people face such a problem. It turned out that 35% of the respondents are allergic to mosquito bites.

In most cases, this appears local reactions: swelling at the bite site, severe itching, redness. Some have difficulty breathing (runny nose, shortness of breath). Rarely, but still with an allergic reaction to a mosquito, it can be anaphylactic shock(accompanied by severe edema mucous membranes, can lead to death).

Infection

By themselves, mosquito bites, even if the mosquito is not infected with any virus or helminthiasis, can be dangerous. Remember how much bites itch - sometimes you can comb to the blood. What if there are a lot of bites? Then the "itch" begins all over the body. As a result, open wounds can form, into which the infection enters.

Education open wound- that in itself is dangerous. If the injured area is not treated in time, there is a risk that an infection will get there. This is, of course, very serious. You can bring, for example, streptococcus or staphylococcus bacteria. Infection of an open wound can even lead to sepsis (blood poisoning), - explained the therapist Anastasia Krasnova.

By the way, in order not to comb the wound too much, special cooling gels are sold in the pharmacy. Doctors advise not to neglect them in order to prevent unpleasant consequences.

tropical fevers

And yet we can say that mosquitoes in our latitudes are not as aggressive as, for example, in the tropics. Nevertheless, even in Russia, you can get dengue fevers from a mosquito.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, in 2017 viral fevers, including dengue fever and West Nile fever ( infectious diseases, which are just carried by mosquitoes) in Russia, more than 6 thousand people were ill, which is 33% more than in 2016. Most Russians, of course, bring such “souvenirs” from vacation, but some of the sick people got infected at home.

If in middle lane Russia is unlikely, but in the south of the Krasnodar Territory it is quite possible. It is there that mosquitoes of the species Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus live - they carry diseases such as the Zika virus (affects brain tissue) and malaria (causes fever attacks).

By the way, earlier a group of Russian scientists said that with a warming climate, new horizons will open before these mosquitoes. If by 2034 it becomes warmer by 2 C°, mosquitoes will capture many regions of Russia and fly even Kola Peninsula, Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

How to protect yourself

All means of protection against mosquitoes have long been known. First of all, these are repellents - various sprays, lotions, ointments, spirals that repel insects.

But do not forget that such protective equipment can be hazardous to health. For example, as previously Life, in some popular repellents, the main component is diethyltoluamide. This Chemical substance when applied excessively (and repellents are usually sprayed all over the body in copious amounts) has neurotoxic effect(i.e. affects nervous system- for example, seizures may begin, headache, fainting).

This component of repellents is toxic, therefore unsafe in terms of use. In addition to possible allergic reactions it can irritate the nervous system. If it gets inside the body or on the mucous membranes, poisoning is possible up to lethal outcome, - explained the chemist Anastasia Naumova.

Of course, a significant part of repellents is not harmless. But if you choose non-toxic ones and apply them correctly (spray without getting on the mucous membranes and without swallowing the contents of the can), then there will be no problems, - Anastasia Naumova added.

According to entomologist Marina Krivosheina, repellents have proven themselves as effective means to repel insects. But there are other ways to protect yourself.

If you are going to relax in the forest, you should wear light-colored clothes and throw a mosquito net over your face. At home, it is also desirable to install such a grid on the windows. Animals also need to be protected - there are repellents for them, too, she said.

In general, the expert concludes, mosquitoes in Russia are a temporary natural disaster. It remains only to wait for the insects to hibernate. Then we can breathe easier. Brace yourself folks, winter is coming!

Mosquitoes, or real mosquitoes, or blood-sucking mosquitoes (lat. Culicidae) are a family of two-winged insects belonging to the long-whiskered group (Nematocera). Legless larvae and mobile pupae of mosquitoes live in stagnant waters. There are over 3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world. Representatives of 100 species belonging to the genera of true mosquitoes (Culex), biters (Aedes), Culiseta, malarial mosquitoes (Anopheles), Toxorhinchites, Uranotaenia, Orthopodomyia, Coquillettidia live in Russia.

Why do mosquitoes bite and why do their bites itch?

Not all mosquitoes bite!

Male mosquitoes spend their days peacefully drinking flower nectar. Females also do not mind eating nectar.

But before laying eggs, females of some species of mosquitoes need to drink warm blood. Large, clumsy human beings are an excellent source of warm blood. Mosquitoes find people by their movements, by the warmth we radiate and by smell.. When a mosquito flies past our ear, we hear a high-pitched, ringing buzz, which is the sound of tiny mosquito wings working. Scientists believe that the buzzing attracts members of the opposite sex, but it is especially tiring for us at night, when the heat is already keeping us awake. According to scientists, mosquitoes most often go on their bloody hunt at night. At dawn, the opposing sides can calm down and sleep, instead of exchanging deadly blows.

Having made a soft landing on the surface of human skin, the mosquito lightly taps its proboscis on it, as if knocking on a door. The proboscis of a mosquito is more like a snout. Then, raising its hairy lip, the mosquito gently pierces its stylet, which is hollow inside, into the skin. With its surgical tool, the mosquito gropes for small veins and capillaries in search of blood. The process of saturation of the mosquito with blood lasts less than a minute. Before starting to suck blood through a straw, the mosquito injects a special substance into the blood that prevents it from clotting (so that the blood does not clot while the mosquito sucks it). A mosquito can swallow four times more blood than it weighs itself. At the end of a bloody mosquito dinner, his stomach is unimaginably distended. If you watch a female dining on your hand, then by the end of dinner, blood shines through the wall of the mosquito's abdomen. According to one zoologist, a blood-sucking mosquito looks like a red ball on a Christmas tree.

Only female mosquitoes bite!

It is better, of course, not to observe a mosquito, but simply to swat it. Together with saliva, this blood-sucking can introduce an infection into your blood, which the mosquito carries from one of its victims to another. The most serious illness carried by mosquitoes is malaria. Malaria affects 300 million people worldwide, mostly in tropical countries.

Having sucked blood, the female mosquito takes her tube out of the puncture and flies away. If this was your first mosquito bite in your life, then you will not feel anything at all and will never know that your blood was eaten. But if this is not the first contact with a mosquito, then the body has already become sensitive to the proteins contained in mosquito saliva. The bite site will swell and itch, that is, an allergic reaction will develop.

A mosquito can swallow four times more blood than it weighs!

The female mosquito drinks blood because it contains in large numbers Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that are necessary for the full development of eggs. Having sucked blood, the female can lay about 100 eggs. If the female is deprived of the blood diet, then she will still lay fertilized eggs, but there will be no more than ten, and more often only one.

Although we do not much like to know that we are being eaten alive on warm summer evenings, it must be said that a person is by no means the most favorite dish mosquito. Human blood contains little of the amino acid isoleucine, which is essential for the formation of eggs. Therefore, for a mosquito preferably blood buffalo or rat. But man has driven animals out of their usual habitats, so mosquitoes have to depend on us. We provide them with housing (waste bottles and tins, old clothes) and food (our own warm blood). We are not buffaloes, but the position obliges ...

Why don't mosquitoes bite everyone?

It turns out that mosquitoes sometimes show the habits of real gourmets: they do not rush to drink the blood of the first person or animal that comes across, but choose a victim with certain characteristics. Special Studies made it possible to find out what is the selection criterion for a bloodsucker. Oddly enough, it's a smell. Not without reason, the indigenous northern inhabitants practically do not suffer from insect bites, while a stranger who has fallen into the summer tundra is subjected to their massive attack and risks losing an impressive dose of blood in just a few minutes.

Scientists were able to determine which substances secreted from the surface of human skin make it invulnerable to bloodsuckers. In the future, natural repellents will be developed based on these compounds.

Together with sweat, various substances are excreted from the human body, each of which has its own smell. Mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of lactic acid released from the surface of our skin. Apparently, people who are not bitten by insects exude some other smells that mask such an appetizing aroma.

These same happy representatives of humanity are protected from the bite of tropical mosquitoes that carry yellow fever, and biting midges rampant on the west coast of Scotland. It is possible that all people have these smells, but in different proportions.

What diseases are carried by mosquitoes?

Few insects are as annoying to humans as mosquitoes. And if before they pestered people mainly in countryside and in dachas, now even in the city center there is no peace from them. And most importantly, mosquitoes not only bite painfully, but also carry various dangerous diseases.

As doctors and biologists now believe, mosquitoes carry three main types of diseases. This is, firstly, malaria, which is mainly distributed in tropical latitudes. In Africa, more than a million children die of malaria every year.

Secondly, this a group of diseases caused by microscopic filamentous worms. These worms, getting into the lymphatic or circulatory system, cause blockage of blood vessels, blood clots, accumulation of lymph in the limbs, because of which the arm or leg monstrously swells (this is the so-called "elephant's disease"). The mosquito sucks the blood of the patient, in which there are many such worms, and transfers it healthy people biting them. Such diseases are widespread in South America, Africa and Asia.

Finally, mosquitoes also carry contagious diseases that are caused by various microbes and viruses. This, for example, tropical fever, yellow fever, various encephalitis.

Particularly disturbing is the fact that, despite the efforts of scientists to defeat these diseases, mosquitoes continue their dangerous activities. Even if in some period the number of patients with these dangerous diseases is reduced, then next period with the help of mosquitoes, there are as many, if not more, sick people.

Current data on malaria:

〉 Malaria is home to 2.4 billion people, or 40% of the world's population.

〉 Between 300 and 500 million people are infected with malaria every year, and according to WHO, this number is increasing by 16% annually. 90% of cases are recorded in Africa, of the rest - 70% of cases occur in India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Colombia and the Solomon Islands.

〉 Every year, 1.5 to 3 million people die from malaria (15 times more than from AIDS).

〉 Over the past decade, malaria has moved from third place in terms of the number of deaths per year (after pneumonia and tuberculosis) to the first among infectious diseases.

〉 Every year, about 30,000 people visiting dangerous areas fall ill with malaria, 1% of them die.

〉 One death from malaria costs 65 dollars for treatment and research in the world. For comparison, one death from AIDS accounts for $3,400.

Why does a mosquito squeak?

“Flies - squeaks, sits down - is silent.” Who is this? Of course a mosquito. But so far we have solved only half the riddle. You also need to guess why the mosquito squeaks only when it flies, and sits down - is silent?

Mosquitoes don't have a voice, so they don't squeak, they make sound... their wings. When the wing of a mosquito flies in one direction, it drives the air in front of it, and it shrinks a little, and behind the wing there is a void, because the wing drove the air away. This void is immediately filled with air from those places where there was no mosquito, but this takes a little time. Until this time has passed, the number of air particles behind the winglet is less than around it, so it turns out that the air behind it seems to have expanded. In all directions from the place where the mosquito flaps its wings, these seals and expansions of air diverge, which are also called waves, they are the sound that we hear.

In flight, mosquito wings flutter, oscillate, and so quickly that they make a sound. In a mosquito, it is thin, because it flaps its wings very quickly. The fly flaps its wings more slowly - therefore it does not squeak, but buzzes. The bumblebee's voice is even bassier - it hums. This is because the bumblebee flaps its wings even more slowly.

Where do mosquitoes go in winter?

In winter, in places where winters are cold enough, you will not see mosquitoes, but they continue to live. Only they live in other forms in which we may not recognize the flying and buzzing insect known to us.

Mosquitoes spend the first part of their lives in water and the rest on land and in the air. Their life begins at the moment when the female lays her eggs in a reservoir of stagnant water. Soon, larvae hatch from them, which immediately begin to swim and look for food.

Soon the larvae turn into pupae, the pupae in turn become adult insects and fly away.

The entire journey from egg to adult takes only nine to fourteen days!

But when they come winter cold, eggs and larvae "hibernate". Nothing comes out of them. And females of some species of mosquitoes also fall into a kind of hibernation for the winter. Thus, eggs, larvae, pupae, and adult insects wait out the winter.

An interesting fact is that, although these insects are most favorable hot climate, and especially the tropics, where mosquitoes are a real disaster, they are an even greater disaster in the northern regions of Canada, Alaska and Siberia. This is due to the ability of mosquito eggs to survive the winter in the snow. When the snow melts, the insects begin to hatch in such numbers that cases are told when a person went crazy, bitten by a midge!

Of course, the danger that mosquitoes pose to humans is not only that they bite painfully, but even more so that they transfer diseases from sick people to healthy people. The mosquito sucks out disease-causing microbes along with the blood of a sick person. Then, when a mosquito bites a healthy person, it introduces microbes into the body along with its saliva. The mosquito does not need these microbes: what it needs is blood.