When summertime comes each year, it brings warm temperatures, longer days – and barbecues. But in addition to the positive things that the season brings – it also brings with it some things that we don’t want – one in particular being mosquitoes.

In existence for over thirty million years, the word “mosquito” is Spanish for “little fly” and its use dates back to about 1583 in North America. Mosquitoes belong to the order Diptera, true flies, and are like flies in that they have two wings, but unlike flies, their wings have scales, their legs are long and the females have a long mouth part (proboscis) for piercing skin. Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to one hundred feet away. Both mammals and birds give off these gases as part of their normal breathing. It has also been determined that certain chemicals in sweat also seem to attract mosquitoes.

There are over 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world, and there are thirteen mosquito genera (plural for “genus”) that live in the United States. Of these genera, most mosquitoes belong to three: Aedes, sometimes called “floodwater” mosquitoes because flooding is important for their eggs to hatch; Anopheles, who tend to breed in bodies of permanent fresh water; and Culex, who tend to breed in quiet, standing water.

One of the first things that adult mosquitoes do is seek a mate out, mate and then feed. Male mosquitoes have short mouth parts and feed on plant nectar. In contrast, female mosquitoes have a long proboscis that they use to bite animals and humans and feed on their blood (the blood provides proteins that the females need to lay eggs). After they feed, females lay their eggs (they need a blood meal each time they lay eggs). Females continue this cycle and live anywhere from many days to weeks (longer over the winter); males usually live only a few days after mating. The life cycles of mosquitoes vary with the species, as well as their surrounding environmental conditions.

After a mosquito bites you, some saliva remains in the wound. The proteins from the saliva evoke an immune response from your body. The area swells (the bump around the bite area is called a “wheal”), and you itch, a response provoked by the saliva. Eventually, the swelling goes away, but the itch remains until your immune cells break down the saliva proteins. Mosquitoes can carry many types of diseases that are caused by bacteria, parasites or viruses. These diseases include Malaria, Yellow Fever, Encephalitis and Dengue Fever.

I am sure I join each of my fellow humans when I say that I absolutely despise mosquitoes. I hate the fact that they bite you and leave you itching your skin off until the bite finally goes away. Over the last two weeks, I have been bitten by mosquitoes over a dozen times on my lower legs and ankles, and have been going crazy trying to deal with them. It looks as though my legs are a version of the “connect the dots” games I used to play as a child – and I spend at least a collective hour each day scratching my skin until the bites start to bleed again. And it seems that no matter what anti-mosquito attempts I take to avoid them, including sprays, wearing long jeans instead of shorts – and citronella candles – they manage to find me anyway.

Now that the summer is coming to an end, I am hoping that the mosquitoes that have been buzzing around all of us will finally begin to dissipate. And although it is inevitable that they will return next summer to torment us again – I look forward to the nine months of reprieve.