Hi,

All mosquitoes need liquid water at some point in their development. And I've been in areas which had no water and lots and lots of mosquitoes, mostly dense pine forests in Northern California and Oregon. I wondered from whence they came.

A couple of years ago I was hiking with an odd couple - two attractive blond women wearing mini-skirts, really wraps. We were more or less on the same path for about two weeks, sometimes hiking together, more frequently spending the night in the same areas. Turned out they were mother and daughter, daughter being 20 years old and already having an MS in Social Work. Mom, in her later 30s, had a Masters in Marine Biology. (The social dynamic was intriguing, too. Mom was gay, daughter had a boyfriend who was a bit bitter about her being on a 3 month hike. Mom's lover would meet them at road crossings and parks with food, clean clothing and so on.)

I was bitching one night about the goddamned mosquitoes and complained there wasn't any water around. Mom's interest got piqued, she hadn't thought of that. The next time we got near a telephone she called a friend who looked it up. And this is what she told me.

Some mosquitoes lay their eggs on top of snow. As the spring air warms and the sun hits the snow it melts enough to get wet. The water can easily run down through the snow into and into the ground, but in that process the larvae have a window of opportunity to hatch. And they take it.

In some areas as the snow melts the water doesn't remain on the surface but heads into the underground water table. No creeks, ponds or lakes. But there are mosquitoes.

The second situation is similar to the first, though the mosquitoes lay their eggs on the ground where there will be snowfall. As the above-mentioned snow melts those guys have their window of opportunity, and hatch shortly after the last snow has left their area and while the ground is quite moist. They fly off, the ground dries, and there we are again.

By the way, a little-known fact is how much of a scam those ultraviolet bug killers are in re mosquitoes. A guy and his grad student sexed the mosquitoes which were killed by them in a couple of areas. The score was something like 16,939 male mosquitoes and 4 female. Unfortunately, it's the females that bite.

What he says is that the males feed on flowers and such, and the ultraviolet mimics some flower colors. They fly over to be fried. The females want blood, could care less about UV, are looking for the smell of CO2 in the morning.

Hope this helps. I thought it was fascinating.

Arf