Mosquitos - The deadliest animal in the world

Mosquitos - The deadliest animal in the world

It’s not lions, tigers, bears or even snakes that cause the most deaths from animals worldwide, but the tiny mosquito. This annoying, biting, long-legged insect is not just a nuisance, it carries many deadly and debilitating diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile fever, yellow fever, Zika, chikungunya and lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis, one of the world’s leading causes of disability).

The mosquito kills more people than any other creature in the world. Even today, almost one million people a year die from mosquito-borne disease.

There are over 3,000 mosquito species, but few consume human blood and transmit disease. The most dangerous mosquitoes are certain species of Anopheles, Aedea and Culex.