Identifying mosquito larvae
Mosquitoes are nasty little pests. Not only do they buzz around annoyingly, somehow evading your repeated swipes to slap them away, but they also have mouth parts that slice into your skin so that they can feed off of your blood. If that isn't bad enough, mosquitoes also carry diseases that are a threat to you and your family.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemics brought on my mosquito carrying diseases are on the rise. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes spread diseases like chikungunya, dengue and Zika and other species spread diseases like malaria.
One of the best ways to prevent mosquitos from ruining your outdoors is to stop them from ever even reaching adulthood.
Eradicating the threat of these potential diseases from your property is the best way to protect you and your family but first you must be able to identify larvae, the first step in the mosquito life cycle, and know where to find them. Use this guide to find and identify mosquito larvae to assess the threat on your property.
What do mosquito larvae look like?
While you might be an expert in identifying mosquitos, you might not know what their younger versions look like. Mosquito larvae are sometimes called "wrigglers," and pupae are called "tumblers." Mosquito larvae, like many insect larvae, live in the water. They have large heads with fuzzy thoraxes, and narrow, wormlike abdomens. You'll find them at the surface of the water with their abdomens out in the air; this is how they breathe.
When disturbed, mosquito larvae will "wriggle" downwards - which is where their name comes from. Similarly, mosquito pupae also hang out at the surface of the water but are curled like commas.
You'll find mosquito larvae in water - standing water specifically. Shallow puddles, both indoors and outdoors, are breeding grounds for mosquitos. They can grow in ponds, puddles, buckets filled with water, and generally damp environments.
You won't find them in streams or rivers, though larvae may show up in calm pools that spring off of these areas. Generally, mosquitos love to lay their eggs in quiet water - and due to the speed that mosquitos mature, this can even be in warm, standing water that's accumulated after a rainfall.
What do I do when I find larvae?
The easiest way to prevent mosquito larvae is to eliminate areas of standing water. This might mean dumping out accumulated rainwater, checking inside areas where water may drip and accumulate like under washers or air conditioning units or even modifying your landscape to drain out water that might gather in low areas.
Mosquito fogging treatments eliminate mosquito larvae before they reach adulthood, and misting systems are a great way to eliminate larvae automatically or on-demand. This might be after a heavy rainfall or when you've noticed the problem - but these systems can prevent the issue as well as any future problems.
Trust MosquitoNix® to protect your outdoor spaces
When bitten by mosquitoes, you or your family have the potential to be infected with nasty mosquito borne diseases. MosquitoNix knows how important it is to protect you, your family and your property from these flying, biting insects.
MosquitoNix offers customized solutions to protect your outdoor home or commercial property. We are the national leader in mosquito control and we offer permanent, temporary and portable mosquito and pest control options. Serving both residential and commercial properties, we offer superior customer service, trained and licensed employees and state-of-the-art products and services.
Contact MosquitoNix today to find out how ongoing fogging treatment and a custom misting system can keep you comfortable and protect your property from costly damage.
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