Mosquito Busters

If someone asks you, “What’s the deadliest animal in the world?” you’d probably think of lions, sharks, or other predators. However, the numbers say otherwise: only one animal has an average kill count of 1,000,000 people per year. Mosquitoes might just seem like tiny pests, but these insects are the deadliest animals in the world due to the diseases they carry. Throughout history, mosquitoes have already claimed billions of lives. The females of most species require a blood meal to mature their eggs. Through bloodsucking, females of various species (genera Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex) transmit human diseases, including dengue fever, encephalitis, filariasis, malaria, yellow fever, and elephantiasis.