11/4/2023 0 Comments Praying mantis eat antsGiven we just listed out 21 different animals and bugs that do and do not eat mosquitoes, we figured adding a quick summary table should help in case you forgot any! Creatureīirds of all kinds eat insects as a major part of their diet and therefore will eat mosquitoes just as they will eat any insect. Summary Table: Which Creatures Eat Mosquitoes? They can’t eat the adults, of course, but they love to eat the larva and pupae. Chief among these are goldfish, guppies, minnows, and koi, which can be kept over winter. Certain species of fish will eat mosquito larva whenever they get the chance. Like wasps, they might accidentally kill a male mosquito from time to time in a territorial dispute over flowers and access to pollen, but that’s it. Bees are not a natural enemy of mosquitoes or one of their predators. However, ducks will eat any insect so the odds of them eating enough mosquitoes to keep them under control are about zero. As a water fowl though, they are also notable for eating mosquito larva and pupae that are in the water. Like all birds, ducks will eat mosquitoes along with other insects. They are ambush predators, lying in wait for their prey to come to them rather than hunting for it, so any mosquitoes they eat are random rather than deliberate. Praying mantises eat mosquitoes and just about anything else they can get their claws on, even small hummingbirds. They can eat up to 60 insects per hour so they play a definite role in keeping the mosquito population in check. Barn swallows are especially fond of eating mosquitoes, gnats, and flying termite swarmers. The only thing they feed on is nectar, tree sap, rotting fruit, and muddy puddles. They have a widely varying diet will opportunistically eat the odd mosquito here and there, but not enough to have any impact on their population. Ladybugs eat garden pests, so they might consume the occasional male mosquito who only feeds on nectar, but as a general rule they do not eat mosquitoes. Regardless, they are considered to be beneficial insects, unless you are dealing with a ladybug infestation. Ladybugs are carnivores but they avoid eating bloodsucking insects such as mosquitoes and bed bugs. Chickens eat mosquitoes and other small insects but they can’t possibly eat enough of them fast enough to reduce their population. As a general rule though, Venus fly traps are not know for eating mosquitoes. They lure insects with their nectar, so they will occasionally lure a male mosquito into their trap, but the bloodsucking female is looking for people or animals to feed on so she can lay more eggs. Although they may occasionally kill and eat a mosquito it is more by accident than anything. They eat nectar, fruits of various kinds, honey, some small insects, and a few plants. Wasps are not generally known for eating mosquitoes. Instead they eat from flowers just like many other pollinator species. Love bugs aren’t native to the United States and they don’t eat mosquitoes. They don’t search for mosquito larva in particular though. If the larva they attack happen to be mosquito larva, the mayflies aren’t picky. However, they will eat algae or the larva of any species that lives in the water. They eat them as “targets of opportunity” just as they do with any other insect. However, they don’t eat mosquitoes exclusively. ![]() ![]() Insects are a mainstay in the diets of most species of birds, so naturally they wind up eating mosquitoes as well. Most major bird species will eat mosquitoes. At best, these amphibian hunters can only keep the mosquito population in balance. Frogs and toads eat mosquitoes, but it isn’t enough to stop the growth of their population, popular misconceptions to the contrary notwithstanding. They also need protein, which they get from eating mosquitoes, gnats, aphids, flying ants, white flies, and more. Hummingbirds primarily eat flower nectar, visiting up to 1000 flowers a day. Once their prey is caught in their web, a spider will wrap it in spider silk and save the body until it is hungry. Spiders will spin a web that catches a multitude of flying insects, including mosquitoes. Mosquito hawks are another name for crane flies, who aren’t even able to eat during their adulthood. Their larva might eat mosquito larva in the water, but that’s about it. ![]() Their whole life span is only about 10-15 days from hatching to death and only during a few of those days are they adults. Crane flies, which look like over-sized mosquitoes, don’t actually eat at all during their short life as an adult.
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