Why did God make mosquito’s ….

On the way to school in the mornings I get all sorts of questions. The other day the 8 year old wanted to know “why did God make mosquitoes”. My usual answer followed “ask Mrs R…. teachers are very clever you know … much cleverer than I am…. and if she does not know, ask her to google it please”. Well after that, I decided to do a little research for myself on the little vampires.

Here it is in 7 easy points:

1. There are over 3500 species of mosquito.
2. Only the female mosquito bite. Beware a woman scorned ….
3. Pagans believed that mosquito’s were evil people re-incarnate. So a few mothers-in-laws I suppose.
4. They can beat their wings over 1000 times per second.
5. They have no benefits to humans but play an important role as a food source for frogs, lizards, fish etc. especially in the artic tundra (tundra is the geographical area where the low temperatures and short growing season limit the vegetation growth – the soil is permanently frozen) where they are the primary food source for the migratory birds.
6. They are the number one killer of humanity. No wars or disease epidemic comes close. But not all mosquito’s spread disease.
7. They have a four stage life cycle. Egg – larva – pupa – flying adults. This cycle will last between 4 days and 1 month.