Why we’re all suddenly getting eaten alive by MOZZIES

WE ARE not the only ones benefiting from the belated balmy summer — it’s been a bumper year for mosquitoes, too. The washout June, followed by the warmer July and August, has created ideal breeding conditions for Britain’s most hated blood-sucking pest.

Populations are so high that anyone brave enough to venture outdoors in the evening is at serious risk of becoming a tasty — and itchy — mozzie meal.

And staying inside is no guarantee you’ll be safe — there are so many mosquitoes that they’re invading our houses, too.

Diseases spread by mosquitoes such as malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever kill at least one million people every year, making them the world’s most dangerous insect by far. ( In contrast, snakes kill around 90,000).

Thankfully, serious illness from mosquitoes remains rare in the UK.

Only a handful of the three dozen species in Britain have a taste for human blood, and while bites can lead to severe allergic reactions or bacterial infections, the vast majority are nothing more than an irritation.

So why are they suddenly thriving and what can you do to avoid them?

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY THIS SUMMER?

Dr JAMES LOGAN, Britain’s top mosquito expert who advised Team GB how to protect against the insects in rio, says conditions have been ideal this year.

‘The wet and warm weather is exactly what they need to breed,’ says Dr Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Hungry mosquitoes are adept at getting into our houses through doors, windows or bathroom vents.

And once they are inside, they will usually keep buzzing around until they find a source of food — often you, asleep at night — or are killed by a fly swatter or spray.

Mozzies have been helped by that British combination of wet and warm weather.

Females lay batches of 100 to 200 eggs in still, uncovered water. An inch is enough for the eggs to hatch into larvae after a couple of days and then, after ten days, to grow into adults.

‘You don’t need very much water,’ says Dr Logan. ‘They can even breed in puddles. A common place is a water butt or bird bath.’

BLOOD-SUCKERS’ PASSION FOR US

MALE mosquitoes have no interest in gorging on your blood. And for most of their short lives, the females are strict vegetarians, living off nectar and pollen from plants.

But every three or four days the female blood lust descends. To lay healthy eggs, they need to gorge on nutrientrich blood and the best place to get that is a passing bird, deer, cow or human.

They bite using a sharp proboscis, a specialist part of their mouth, and suck blood through two tubes.

They inject their victims with saliva to stop the blood clotting as they guzzle up to three times their own weight in blood.

SPOTTING HUMAN PREY FROM 150 FT

TO HELP find food, the females have a sophisticated array of sensors that would put the high-tech listening equipment of GCHQ to shame. The most important is an organ called the maxillary palp, which can spot the faintest whiff of carbon dioxide — the gas we exhale in our breath —from 150 ft.

The females are attracted to warmth and movement of bodies. And th feathery antennae on their heads detects some of the 400 volatile chemicals that can waft into the air from our skin.

Mozzies love a chemical called lactic acid that oozes through our pores when we are active.

They are also partial to octenol found in breath and sweat, and uric acid in urine and on the skin.

ARE SOME PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE?

EVERYONE outside at dusk is fair game for a mosquito. But some are at greater risk.

Studies have shown that between 10 and 20 per cent of people are more attractive to mosquitoes than the rest of us. Larger people are among those at greater risk.

If you are tall or plump, you need more energy to pump blood around your body and so you burn up more food when resting and generate more carbon dioxide — making you easier to spot.

A study by Dr Logan in 2010 also showed that bigger people are more vulnerable simply because there is more of them to bite. But mozzies do simply appear to like the smell of some people more than others. Last year, Dr Logan’s team discovered that attractiveness to mosquitoes runs in families in the same way as height, IQ and eye colour. However, there is no evidence that people who eat garlic or spicy food are less attractive. And the pests don’t seem to be fussy over blood type or skin colour.

BEST BUG BEATERS

IF YOU are constantly under attack, there are things you can do to make yourself less desirable. Japanese and French scientists found people who drink beer outdoors were slightly more vulnerable to bites than teetotallers. Beer increases body temperature slightly and makes us sweat more.

Avoiding exercise in the evening can help as activity makes us sweaty and hot, and lures the pests.

Washing your feet and avoiding open-toed sandals and flip-flops in the evenings can keep pests away.

A 2011 study on African mosquitoes found that people with a lot of skin bacteria were more likely to be bitten.

Dark clothes, which retain the heat more than lighter colours, also seem to attract the insects.

Citronella candles appear to work inside, but there’s no hard evidence they do any good in a garden. The most effective deterrent is insect repellent sprayed on your clothing and skin.

CAN THEY CARRY DISEASE TO THE UK?

ASIDE from the minority whose bites flare up badly, mosquitoes are a nuisance rather than a danger.

But that could change with global warming and the greater movement of people around the world.

If temperatures in the UK rise as predicted by climate scientists, mosquito numbers will also go up.

This increased the risk of tropical diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus and Zika being spread more widely, according to a study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Health experts fear West Nile virus — a disease spread by mosquitoes feeding on infected birds and then biting people — causes flu- like symptoms and can be fatal for the elderly and infirm.

COULD MALARIA BE A PROBLEM HERE?

MALARIA could return to the UK. The disease was once common in Britain, particularly around the marshlands of Kent and Essex, and fens of Cambridgeshire. It was wiped out in the 19th century.

Today, there are around 2,000 cases of malaria in the UK each year. Most are the result of people infected overseas.

However, there are five species of mosquito in the UK able to spread the disease and if numbers rise and temperatures go up, it could be a threat here once more.