Bugs Gone Away

All the insects have mostly disappeared for the winter. It hasn’t gotten too cold yet, but they seem to know winter is coming, & have packed up & gone elsewhere. (Or died.)  For the most part, that is. Every now & then the bugs (mostly ants) will find their way indoors & show up in large colonies. But the bees, flies, & mosquitoes have all left.

'paper wasp nest I saw last month'

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are getting more numerous as the weather warms up. I’ve seen whole swarms of them floating around. They lay their eggs in standing water, where the mosquitoes will live until they are adults. There are 4 stages in the life cycle of  mosquitoes: egg, larva, pupae, & adult. The egg, larva, & pupae stages must have standing water to complete developing.  The type of standing water varies, however,with the mosquito species.  Some species prefer permanent water sources, like  waste lagoons, marshes, catch basins, ponds, & the shallow margins of reservoirs & lakes.  Other species prefer to lay their eggs in water collected in tires, tree holes, cans, or other man-made containers. Others develop in temporary rainwater pools. Some mosquitoes, instead of laying their eggs in standing water sources that are already there, choose to lay their eggs in places where water is likely to accumulate. (How they can figure out where water is likely to accumulate beats me, as their brain is smaller than this star *.) Their eggs can hatch within 2 – 3 days of being layed, or lay dormant for months, & hatch minutes after being rained upon. A female mosquito lays a batch of          50 – 400 eggs every time she feeds. It seems like with this many mosquitoes hatching, they would just overrun Earth, but mosquitoes may live only a few days, & about 1/3 of the population die daily.