>Tx. rutilus feeding behaviors make them strikingly different from a typical mosquito. Both adult males and females are strictly nectar-feeding and so they do not have a role in the transmission of pathogens to animals as in other mosquitoes.[7] Instead, their larvae are predacious and could potentially help curb the spread of diseases via vector mosquitoes. While they commonly prey on copepods, rotifers, ostracods, and chironomids, they also generally have a preference for certain species of mosquito larvae including common disease vectors such as Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, and Aedes polynesiensis.
Honestly, I was so confident in what I thought I knew (namely evil giant Alaskan mosquitoes) that I didn’t bother to read the article I linked, I just added it for others’ context. Culiseta alaskaensis is probably the source of confusion, and I think a switch-up happened when this was first relayed to me.
Looks like the island might be back on, assuming it doesn’t get hot enough to become temperate in the next few years hah.
In my experience Black flies[1] and no-see-ums[2] are far worse (not counting mosquitoes born disease). It's like a massive angry cloud of micro horseflies that intend to dismember you bite by bite.
Pretty much - although after living with it for 4 year I can report it's often worse. =)
The local bookstore gave a discount for the first bite of the season if you lived long enough to collect.
While technically true, I think that's in tropical Africa. Are there also diseases that they carry in North America? Even without disease, I tend to agree with the OP that black flies are worse than mosquitoes, and don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting a disease from a black fly bite in the US or Canada.
You're mostly correct, but apparently not totally :) - I did think that it was further north, but the human cases are usually only in south and central america and africa.
Nonetheless, there are some.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites_rutilus