Male Mosquito Feeding Habits

The male mosquito has a hard life, eating and breeding. After they go through the life stages of all mosquitoes; egg, then larva, pupa to an adult male mosquito spend most days foraging for food. There are a 50/50 ratio of male and female is mosquitoes that emerge as adults. The life of a male mosquito has but one purpose. They feed on plant nectar, which they need for energy, and find a mate. Male mosquitoes drink only sugary fluids such as flower nectar; both in the wild and in the laboratory, mosquitoes will visit only certain flowers, in captivity they will return to feed on fruit placed in their cage.

Since male mosquitoes forage constantly through flowers of some plants, they can distinguish between different types of sugars. Mosquitoes play a role in pollination of certain plants. Unlike the female mosquitoes, if the male mosquitoes are given the choice of a blood meal or the sweet nectar of a plant, the male always chooses the sweet nectar. Like many other insect species, males are important for just one reason, reproduction and then they expire.

The nectar hunting goes on for a number of days as they build strength for mating. They instinctively fly around and looking and listening for a female to mate with. The female wing speed is greater than that of the male, giving off a higher frequency to home in on. The male mosquito will then mate with one female. The life expectancy of a male mosquito is about one week from emergence as an adult to his death. They don't bite anybody, they seldom bother anybody, they just eat and breed and die. The role of male mosquito has one purpose and one purpose only, to proliferate the mosquito population.