How Much Does a Mosquito Weigh?
WouterUnlike larger insects, most mosquitoes are fairly small. A full grown mosquito weighs less than 2.5 milligrams. Generally, mosquitoes are three to six millimeters in length. Some species can develop from egg to adult in as little as five days.
During their life, mosquitoes use their sense of odor to find their blood meal. They also detect body heat, sweat and carbon dioxide. These chemicals help them identify their victims. In addition, they use their visual system to identify objects that are high in contrast. They are attracted to 300 different chemical compounds produced by the skin.
Female mosquitoes must drink blood to survive and to produce eggs. They take five millionths of a liter of blood from their host in a single bite. They also inject an anticoagulant into their saliva to keep their blood moving. Their blood acts as the protein source for the eggs they lay.
They are able to pierce through the skin with their proboscis. They can also smell the carbon dioxide that their host exhales from a distance. This allows them to know if they have enough blood to eat.
They can travel between ten and fifteen miles a night. They also have the ability to walk on spider webs without alerting the spider. They are able to stay lower to the ground on hotter days. They can move more slowly than other flying insects, because their wings beat between 300 and 600 times a second.
