Who is the flower mosquito? It has become the mainstream mosquito in China in less than 50 years.

When I was a child, I often went to the yard with my grandmother to enjoy the cool air in the summer. But I don’t know since when, the reputation of the flower mosquito became known. In order to avoid being bitten, I basically did not go out to enjoy the cool air in the evening.

The scientific name of the flower mosquito is Aedes albopictus, but because the black and white pattern on its body is a bit similar to that of a tiger, it is also called the Asian tiger mosquito .

It is not an exaggeration to call this kind of mosquito a "tiger mosquito". If other mosquitoes bite people, they will only leave a bump, which is not itchy and goes away quickly. However, if you are bitten by a flower mosquito, several bumps will appear. Not only are they itchy, but they also take a long time to go away. Sometimes there will be a mark there for two weeks.

In order to suck blood better, mosquitoes release some substances when they bite people, including thrombin, formic acid, etc.

These substances are foreign to the human body, and the immune system will initiate a clearance command, which will manifest as an itchy lump, which is actually an allergic reaction of the body.

The reason why the bites of flower mosquitoes are so unbearable is that they are an invasive species and our immune system is not yet adapted to the substances they release .

If you have carefully observed the biting patterns of mosquitoes, you will find that they are very greedy, and if you do not disturb them, they will continue to suck blood until their stomachs are so bloated that they have difficulty flying.

This voracious blood-sucking mode will cause them to briefly enter a rest phase to digest the blood they have sucked.

By the way, every time a mosquito sucks enough blood, it will stimulate the corresponding glands to secrete hormones, thereby making the eggs mature. The ones that suck blood are female mosquitoes, so it can be said that they suck blood in order to lay eggs .

The mosquito's voracious blood-sucking mode may reduce the chance of contact with the host (I don't know if this is their evolutionary advantage), but it is definitely more likely for hosts like humans to be swatted to death.

Compared to these mosquitoes, the blood-sucking mode of flower mosquitoes is very clever. They "bite repeatedly", which is equivalent to shooting and moving to another place. They are difficult to kill with a slap. This is why being bitten by a flower mosquito will cause several bumps.

One reason why flower mosquitoes can use this blood-sucking mode is that their digestive ability is relatively stronger (in fact, mosquitoes have strong digestive abilities and can generally consume a stomach full of blood in three or four hours), so they can quickly digest blood while sucking it.

At the same time, since they do not suck enough blood each time, flower mosquitoes almost never take a break when sucking blood, and they are trying to find targets both day and night.

They don't rest, they bite repeatedly, and they are even more poisonous . Don't you think they are annoying? So it's not an exaggeration to say that mosquitoes take away our coolness - especially before mobile phones became popular.

So, who is the flower mosquito?

The origin of the flower mosquito is the tropical region of Southeast Asia. Since the 1960s, as global trade has become more frequent, the flower mosquito has also taken advantage of this "trend" to rapidly develop its territory.

It first spread in Asia and then moved northward.

By the 1980s, it had entered Europe and America and caused damage. It was first discovered in Africa in 1990 and became a disaster in 1991.

Global distribution of Aedes albopictus in 2015, albopict

Because Australia has always been severely damaged by invasive species, they have had strict control over invasive species for a long time, and there is entomological monitoring at ports and airports. The flower mosquito only took root in Australia and New Zealand after 2006.

Now the flower mosquito can be found almost all over the world, so in 2008, the flower mosquito was awarded the title of "one of the world's 100 most serious invasive species."

All organisms that receive this title are not vegetarians and are invasive species that cause serious damage.

In China, the earliest records of flower mosquitoes were in Guangdong and Yunnan provinces, and they entered here around the 1980s - less than 50 years ago. It was most likely that they were initially introduced into China through the import of fruits and timber.

The flower mosquito's strong adaptability

Every day in the world, different creatures are brought from their places of origin to other areas, but very few can really make a splash in other places. Flower mosquitoes have done it, and this has a lot to do with their innate conditions.

First, their eggs.

Other mosquitoes may need to be transported to other places by plane, but for flower mosquitoes, it is only necessary to take their eggs away, which would be very difficult to detect and prevent.

The eggs of flower mosquitoes have many characteristics such as drought resistance, cold resistance, and dormancy. Simply put, when conditions do not allow, they can remain active and hatch when conditions allow .

Secondly, flower mosquitoes have very low environmental requirements for reproduction.

It is thought that once the flower mosquito begins to spread to other areas and habitats, it can outcompete or even eliminate other species with similar breeding habitats. In some habitats, the Aedes aegypti, which is also a strong invasive species, has even been suppressed to the point of almost extinction.

This is because the places where flower mosquitoes lay their eggs are very wide, from water bodies to damp dead branches and leaves, even just a drop of water can cause a wave of them.

When people control mosquitoes, they will reduce the number of places where mosquitoes can lay eggs. This is one of the most effective methods of mosquito control. Mosquitoes that lay eggs in a single place can be easily controlled.

Flower mosquitoes are different. Their habitat is far more than just human communities, and humans only account for about 5.2% of their blood supply, which makes control particularly difficult.

Third, the tolerance of flower mosquitoes has been increasing.

We said before that China's flower mosquitoes were originally active in Yunnan and Guangdong, but now even Beijing has become their "hunting ground".

Their resistance to cold and tolerance to polluted water bodies have been increasing, which may be related to their super strong reproductive ability. After all, the larger the population, the higher the probability of genetic mutation.

Finally, the greatest destructive power of the flower mosquito is not the itchiness caused by its bite, but its super strong ability to spread diseases.

They themselves are carriers of many prevalent mosquito-borne diseases, including yellow fever virus, dengue fever, and chikungunya fever, and their repeated biting nature greatly increases the probability of disease transmission.

Now that the weather is starting to get hot, mosquitoes have begun to buzz in many areas. If you are being bothered by mosquitoes, try to reduce stagnant water around you and keep it clean and tidy. Mosquitoes do not like this kind of habitat.