Mosquitos are at the center of some of the world’s most pressing biosecurity concerns. The 2021 Centre for Disease Control’s World Mosquito Day campaign boldly claimed that “Mosquitos cause more death and disease than any other animal on the planet.” Now, this claim arguably ignores the fact that humans are key drivers of deadly colonialism, climate change, mass extinction, factory farming, and beyond. However, there is truth to the fact that mosquito-borne illnesses have a devastating toll on humans. According to the World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report, an estimated 627 000 people died of malaria in 2020. These numbers simply can’t capture the gravity and depth of loss, and I don’t want to erase or minimize the enormous suffering that comes from these illnesses. I do, however, want to take a closer look at these beings who are blamed for so much death and disease and who are almost universally hated.
When many of us think of mosquitos, we have a vague idea of them as an undifferentiable mass of biting pests. But there is actually incredible diversity among mosquitos. There are over 3500 species of mosquitos in the world and these mosquito species have different preferences for feeding, breeding, flying heights, geographic location, roosting behaviors, and biting practices.
They’re also stunningly diverse and beautiful to look at. The Asian Tiger Mosquito, for example, has really striking black and white stripes while the Sabethes cyaneus Mosquito is a breathtaking combination of iridescent purples and blues, and has beautiful fringes on their legs that look like iridescent feathers. Aside from species diversity, there is also individual diversity. It is estimated that at any given time, there are roughly 110 trillion mosquitos on earth. And each of these are a unique individual.
The mosquitos who humans encounter when we get bitten, are only a small fraction of the world’s mosquitos. Most adult mosquitos actually get energy for their daily activities by consuming plant nectar. In fact, it is only certain species of adult female mosquitoes who need to consume protein-rich blood at a specific life stage to enable the growth and maturation of their eggs. Having said that, I still think it is worth considering the subset of mosquitos who bite humans in order to learn more about how they experience the world.
Mosquitos have incredible senses of smell and chemical detection. Those who bite humans can actually sense and hunt the pulses of CO2 that humans exhale and differentiate these from continuous concentrations or emissions of CO2. They can also smell specific chemical components of our body odor. They are incredible hunters and scent trackers. Once they have closed in on their desired human target, who is roughly 100 million times bigger than them, they often must maneuver around moving or swatting limbs.
Imagine what the experience must be like for a mosquito being swatted at by a being of celestial proportions compared to them! A study done on the Aedes aegypti mosquito found that they remember the experience of swats and near misses, along with the associated scent, and they make decisions to move to safer locations and targets. So, in addition to hunting and scent tracking, they are also evading, remembering, and minimizing risks.
Mosquitos have two sleek wings, which can beat at roughly 400-600 beats per second. This is incredible, especially if you compare that with hummingbirds who flap at 90 beats per second. Their wings allow them to make nuanced maneuvers and their impact absorbing legs mean that they are capable of doing gentle landing hovers and light tough downs, so that they can land, undetected.
Now comes the bite.
The female mosquito’s beak is mainly a sheath that protects the inner lance that does the penetrating. The lance actually consists of six interlocking blades, four of which are saw-toothed at the tip. I always thought that they delicately slid a very fine needle into our flesh, but now I imagine them sawing away like lumberjacks! One of the blades has a tube running down it, for injecting lubricating saliva that has anticoagulant properties. And this saliva is what causes our bodies to react with an inflamed and itchy bump. And then there is their straw-like tongue at the center of it all, through which they can suck up blood.
According to Richard Jones (author of Mosquito), there is a lot going on while a mosquito bites a human, and this typically takes place in 2 ½ to 3 minutes. this time, mosquitos drink a fraction of a drop of blood, or 1-5 thousandths of a mL. In relation to adult humans, a mosquito will only consume 1-5, five-millionths of our total blood volume.
I wonder what the experience of feeding on a human must be like for these mosquitos. Is it thrilling? Is it terrifying? Does it feel rushed? Is the craving for blood akin to hormonal or pregnancy cravings that some humans experience? And how might this experience contrast with that of the majority of mosquitos who feed on plant nectar? Is the latter experience more leisurely? Do they have time to really savour their meals?
I also want to point out that mosquitos are both aquatic beings and beings of the air. Mosquitos lay their eggs in water, and the larvae grow in these aquatic environments. What might the experience be for larvae who grow in expansive rice paddies which could theoretically produce more mosquitos than grains of rice, except for the fact that they house numerous fishes who eat the larvae? And how might this compare to the experiences of larvae who live in a rain barrel which is comparatively absent of predators?
There is so much we don’t know about mosquitos’ emotional, social, sensory worlds. But we don’t need to know everything about them to develop compassion for them as diverse and subjective individuals. I want to end with this delightful and aspirational anecdote: Jonathan Balcombe recounts how a friend told him how her late stepfather used to sit in his recliner with a can of beer in hand and flies buzzing all around and say, “The flies are my friends” ! I wonder what marvelous worlds we might gain insight into if we approached mosquitos as friends?
Amanda (Mandy) Bunten-Walberg was a PhD Candidate at Queen's University's School of Environmental Studies where her research explored more-than-human ethics in contagious contexts through the case study of bats and COVID-19. In particular, Mandy is interested in how more-than-human ethics, critical race theory, queer theory, and biopolitical theory might guide humans towards developing more ethical relationships with bats and other (human and more-than-human) persons who are dominantly understood as diseased. Learn more about our team here.
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