Food Chain

What Eats a Mosquito?

Mosquito
What eats a mosquito? What does a mosquito eat?

Mosquitoes bug all of us. They are ectoparasites, which are creatures that bite other creatures—including us—to feed on their blood. Mosquitoes can be found almost everywhere, from most of the world’s hottest places to most of its coldest. Some species of mosquitoes can spread dangerous bacteria and viruses through their bite. Fortunately, a lot of other animals like to eat mosquitoes. If not, we would have to deal with even more of these flying pests.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water, and the larvae that hatch out are fed upon by many different kinds of small fishes, as well as by the aquatic, or water-dwelling, larvae of other kinds of insects.

Dragonflies are voracious predators of adult mosquitoes, as are most species of Earth’s only flying mammal. In addition, Many avian species around the world depend on mosquitoes for sustenance.

It is important to note that not all mosquitoes bite: Only the females do that because they need the richness of blood to make mosquito eggs in their bodies. Male mosquitoes of most species dine on the nectar of plants.




Gordon Ramel

Gordon is an ecologist with two degrees from Exeter University. He's also a teacher, a poet and the owner of 1,152 books. Oh - and he wrote this website.
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