World Mosquito Day 2025: Busting 5 mosquito myths

Mosquitoes are those annoying buzzing pests that would never leave your side. Especially if you enter a dark room, or sit around a dark corner of the house for a long time, you would inevitably spot plump round or oval mosquito bite marks on your body. With time, several notions about them have developed. On World Mosquito Day, we try to break the fact and fiction around these creatures.

5 myths and facts about Mosquitoes you need to know about on World Mosquito Day

There are several notions about the mosquito and its behaviour that usually go around. Let’s take a look at some facts and fiction about these buzzing creatures.

Mosquito Bites

When you get bitten by a mosquito and see the skin plump up, you do use some choicest words for the itch and pain it leaves you with, sometimes even referring to it as he/she/they etc. However, not all kinds of mosquitoes have the ability to bite. In fact, only female mosquitoes can bite. And it is not always humans.

Sometimes it can be animals too. This might make you wonder two things: first, why only females and second, what do the males do? To answer the first question, females need the protein found in blood, which they use for development and laying eggs. The males on the other hand are usually found lurking near flowers and plants where they act as agents of pollination and survive on nectar, fruit sugar and plant juice.

Seen only at night?

Do you close all doors and shut the windows during dusk? Are you often told to do this because mosquitoes will enter after sunset? Interestingly, even in pop-culture narratives, they are seen to enter the house only during evening onwards. But that is not the case in reality. Mosquitoes can come out and bite even during the day. In fact, dengue and Zika virus mosquitoes often seem to bite people unnoticed during the day. To prevent this, you can use fabric roll-on during the day, just like you protect your skin with a sunscreen.  

Mosquitoes drink any blood

While this statement is typically true that mosquitoes drink any blood, there are two interesting theories here. First, over the years, studies have shown that they have a preference for the Blood Type O and second, there may be some factors attached to their drinking blood which determines what type of blood they ultimately drink.

In a scientific study by Corinne Shear Wood published by Wayne State University Press in 1974, it was concluded that mosquitoes were prone to bite those with the Type O blood group. Interestingly, it wasn’t the only study to prove that. In 2004, another study published in the National Library of Medicine showed that they were eager to bite people with Type O group.

Further, in 2019, published in the American Journal of Entomology, was another study where the same Blood group got preference. With three different studies, conducted by different researchers in different years, hinting towards the same thing, it may be concluded that they prefer blood without A or B antigen.

Apart from these factors, others like carbon dioxide trail, colours, heat, and pregnancy also determine if a mosquito is attracted towards your blood.

Only pools and puddles?

You are often asked to go round the sewage pipes, pools and puddles or best avoid it completely because they are prominent breeding grounds for mosquito colonies. While this is indeed a fact, what is to be noted is that they don’t only breed here. Clean and stagnant water are also breeding grounds. Even the water that is clogged in the plant bottoms in your backyard are breeding grounds for them. Thus, clean or dirty water, just be careful of water clogging, as it is home to the mosquitoes.

Natural repellers

Although it is often said that Vitamin B or garlic repels mosquitoes, there is no scientific proof to it. However, lemon – ecucalyptus oil, picaridin or mass market products like mosquito oil, fabric roll ons etc have been time and again tested to keep these pests away from you.

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