BugMan's Weekly Newsletter - Issue #36

January 10, 2022

Hello ,

Mosquitoes, you know them and most likely wish that you never met them!

Female mosquitoes drink blood from mammals and amphibians to acquire the necessary nutrients and protein to lay eggs. While a female mosquito enjoys her bloodmeal, she injects saliva with both anticoagulant and anaesthetic compounds. The anticoagulant ensures that the blood keeps on flowing from the host and doesn't clot, while the anaesthetic assist her to insert her proboscis undetected. The itch you have after a bite is due to your body's immune response to the mosquito's saliva.

Male mosquitoes do not take to blood during their life span, and live off of plant sap!

Mosquitoes, however, are the only animals that are left on this planet that actively hunt humans. They are not man eaters, which is classified as an individual animal that has turned from its natural food sources to regularly preying on humans. Mosquitoes as a group are still actively preying on people!

Mosquitoes are also the most deadly animal to man kind, as it kills the most people per year! Killing an estimated 725 000 to 1 Million people every year through diseases that they transmit!

So, the next time when you are going into a wilderness area make sure you take all the necessary precautions to avoid mosquito bites, as well as taking the correct preventative medication as prescribed by your doctor. Remember, with all mosquito borne diseases, prevention is better than cure!

Weekly Top Shot:

The Third Plague:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.’” And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said. - Exodus 8:16-19