a strange question

[donald girod]

The last couple of years I have found mosquitoes in my house in the dead of winter (like, it's January in western New York, the temperature is hovering around 5 degrees, and I find the occasional mosquito flying around the house). We don't generally get mosquitoes in the house in the summer, when there are relatively lots of them around, and I can't imagine how we can have them now. They never have blood in them, so I don't think we are being bitten, but there they are.

Do mosquitoes ever breed indoors? It would seem impossible, since laying eggs requires blood, and if they were breeding, we would have been bitten. I'm thinking that they could be using the trap in our shower, which we rarely use (we have two bathrooms and one is enough for two people), but it doesn't seem reasonable. They could be hibernating in the attic, I suppose--it is very warm right next to the ceiling under 12" of insulation. But it would be hard for them to get into the house from there.

I have never seen this phenomenon before the last couple of years--does this happen to other people?

[Suzie-Q]

Try asking this question in sci.bio.entomology.misc and/or alt.consumers.pest-control. You might get a better response.

8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail) ~~~~~~

"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

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[paghat]

They cannot breed indoors unless you have some really lovely large aquariums without any fish in them, or some swamp water kept permanently in the otherwise unused bathtub.

But what you describe is VERY common. Ms. Science sez this is why:

Female mosquitos usually live extremely short lives, but in some circumstances will live up to eight months if that's what it takes to complete achieve their purpose in life, to lay eggs for the next generation. Those which turned from wrigglers into adults too late in the season to lay their own eggs will go into hibernation, coming to life in spring to lay eggs (in the nearest pond or puddle) before they die. You've very likely brought hibernating mosquitos into the house on something, typically that would be on firewood. Or they were hibernating in the walls (accessed from under eaves), then on some day when the sun combines with room temperatures to heat the walls, they awake & head for the source of heat, which in the winter would lead it to any crack or opening into the house (it being too cold outside to leave by the eaves).

-paghat the ratgirl

[Janice]

Do you have aquarium fish that you feed live foods? Mosquito larvae are one live food that is fed to aquarium fish. If you did feed mosquito larvae, could be some managed to survive and hatch.

Mosquitos breed in calm waters wherever they find it. The ones that were most responsible for spreading West Nile Virus were breeding in any dab of water they could find, tires, buckets, discarded cans, whatever little pool they can find, and they tended to lay fewer eggs in those small bits and dabs of water.

Do have any plant cuttings growing in water around the house? Or trays or some standing water in trays or water in trays with rocks for plants to rest on so that the water evaporates to increase the humidity, and accidentally increasing the mosquito population.

The more likely means would just be bringing in hibernating mosquitoes into the house from outbuildings. I recall when I was a kid, when we brought in christmas decorations from a shed, a big ol' blowfly emerged from the newspaper around the bulbs. It may be possible that mosquitoes may do the same.

You could ask at your local county extension agency, and even your local mosquito abatement office, should you have such in your location.

Janice

[Salty Thumb]

"donald girod" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

are you quite sure they are mosquitoes and not some other small annoying insect?

but yeah, you might have better luck with in the groups somebody else suggested

[donald girod]

Nah, leave it to rec.gardens to come up with a good answer (see some of them). It is surely hibernating mosquitos coming in on the firewood along with the ladybugs, snakeskins, mouse droppings and other things I have not yet identified. Ever since I built a woodshed a couple of years ago I have been providing habitat to many little creatures. Clearly that shed is way better for them than a freestanding woodpile.

I just didn't want to believe that they were breeding in the shower trap. Yuk. We don't have any other slimy water in the house.

[Dwight Sipler]

I suspect that's unlikely (assuming someone in your house takes showers occasionally). Mosquito larvae live on organic material in the water (such as algae), so since the water in your shower trap is changed regularly, the organic material is flushed out (and probably also the larvae).

Of course, it's possible that if you get really dirty and take a really quick shower, the trap would have enough organic material to support the larvae.