Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Aedes

Transmitted Diseases:
Dengue Fever
Rift Valley Fever
Yellow Fever

Aedes mosquitoes are painful and persistent biters, attacking during daylight hours (not at night). They do not enter dwellings, and they prefer to bite mammals like humans. Aedes mosquitoes are strong fliers and are known to fly many miles from their breeding sources.

Anopheles

Transmitted Diseases:
Lymphatic Filariasis
Malaria

Anopheles mosquitoes are the only mosquito which transmits malaria to man. Anopheles quadrimaculatus is common in the eastern United States. A. freebonis is found west of the Rocky Mountains. The adult mosquitoes of both species are capable of transmitting malaria. They breed in ditches, ponds, swamps, and puddles. These mosquitoes are problems in areas where extensive irrigation of crops occurs. They enter structures to feed on humans, but, although aggressive, they are not painful biters

Culex

Transmitted Diseases:
St. Louis Encephalitis
Japanese Encephalitis
Lymphatic Filariasis
West Nile Virus

Culex mosquitoes are painful and persistent biters also, but prefer to attack at dusk and after dark, and readily enter dwellings for blood meals. Domestic and wild birds are preferred over man, cows, and horses. Culex tarsalis is known to transmit encephalitis (sleeping sickness) to man and horses. Culex are generally weak fliers and do not move far from home, although they have been known to fly up to two miles. Culex usually live only a few weeks during the warm summer months. Those females which emerge in late summer search for sheltered areas where they "hibernate" until spring. Warm weather brings her out in search of water on which to lay her eggs.