Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE

Use this field guide to identify mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus

The lowly mosquito may be humankind's most worthy nemesis.

Advertisement

More than 3,500 different species exist to bite us and suck our blood for survival. As if that weren't enough, many also transmit debilitating — and often deadly — diseases.

Now that Zika is spreading via American mosquitoes in Miami, it's even more imperative to figure out which ones live near you and when they likely to bite.

Mosquitos that carry diseases
Skye Gould/Tech Insider

We couldn't possibly catalog the thousands of species of mosquitoes. But here are six you need to know about — including one, Aedes vexans, that is extremely common, but (exhale!) mostly harmless and another (Anopheles) that is actually a genus that includes hundreds of species:

Malaria alone infected 214 million people in 2015, causing 438,000 deaths. Not one but 40 different species of mosquitoes can transmit malaria, which is actually spread by a tiny parasite that infects female mosquitoes in the Anopheles group. The mosquitoes then pass the parasite, and the disease, onto us.

Advertisement

And the Zika virus, spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti species, has captured the world's attention as it spreads across much of South and Central America. While people who catch Zika usually show no symptoms at all, it can cause debilitating birth defects like microcephaly when pregnant women are infected, and it can trigger Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults. The Aedes albopictus mosquito can likely spread the disease, too, but that hasn't been observed in the Americas yet.

zika map aedes mosquitoes range cdc
Where the Aedes aegypti (left) and the Aedes albopictus (right) mosquitoes are found in the US. CDC

Encephalitis, though rarer, is another potentially disastrous result of a mosquito bite. It's defined as an infection of the brain. Several viruses that are transmitted by an infected mosquito can cause this disease, which often manifests as flu-like but can lead to more serious issues like seizures or paralysis.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends spraying insect repellent on any exposed skin when you're in an area where disease-spreading mosquitoes are present, and for three weeks after you return from a location that has local Zika transmission so the bugs at home can't get the disease from you.

Public Health
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account