Get the Scoop on Mosquitos, Ticks and the Diseases They Carry

Even with a professional mosquito control service like Safeyard on your side, it can also help to stay educated on mosquitos, ticks and the various diseases they can transmit. We’ve compiled the following information to help you learn about these pesky insects and the dangers they pose.

Mosquitos & Ticks
The “mosquito,” Spanish or Portuguese for “little fly,” is a soft-bodied insect that has 3,000 different species variants throughout the world – 176 of which are known to live in the United States. A mosquito's principal food is nectar or similar sugar source; however, female mosquitos have mouthparts that are able to pierce skin. Aside from spoiling outdoors leisure time, the mosquito’s blood-drinking habits have been known to cause a number of problems for humans. Not only can they cause farm animals to lose weight and milk production, but the blood they drink can carry a wide variety of harmful – even fatal – diseases.

Ticks are small arachnids that are ectoparasites – that is, they live on the blood of other animals, identical to mosquitos. Because of such, they can also be problematic nuisances at best, dangerous at worst.

West Nile, Lyme & Other Spreadable Diseases
The diseases that mosquitos can spread include the West Nile Virus, a virus for which the main route of human infection is through the bite of an infected mosquito. While approximately 90% of West Nile Virus infections in humans are without any symptoms, the virus does can have severe effects on both humans and animals, resulting in many fatalities in infected regions. 

Mosquitos that carry infected blood can almost transmit Lyme Disease, Encephalitis, Heartworm and several other harmful diseases and viruses.

Contact us today for a quote, or check out our mosquito control services to learn more.