Nine little-known facts about mosquitoes

Many insects, including mosquitoes, pollinate flowering plants around the world. Photograph: Kerstin Waurick/Getty Images

Wounded Spanish prisoners at Brigade hospital on San Juan Hill, Cuba. Photograph: NARA

Women and their children wait to receive treatment at a municipal hospital in Angola. Photograph: USAID Africa Bureau

Elephant mosquito. Photograph: Public Health Image Library/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Many insects, including mosquitoes, pollinate flowering plants around the world. Photograph: Kerstin Waurick/Getty Images

A World War II public health message urging Allied troops to use and maintain their bed nets to avoid disease. Photograph: NARA

Beer drinkers, not to mention hot, sweaty bodies, are especially attractive to mosquitoes. Photograph: Jose Azel/Getty Images/Aurora Creative

The keen sense of smell exhibited by malaria-carrying mosquitoes may be endowed by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Photograph: Janos Csongor Kerekes/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Bats, like this Townsend’s big-eared bat, often prefer to dine exclusively on moths. Photograph: National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office

Cool blue light and a lot of spark, but bug zappers are next to useless in keeping mosquitoes away. Photograph: John Lamb/Getty Images