By Dan Zarlenga, Missouri Department of Conservation - As you enjoy the outdoors during the warm months of August, sooner or later, you’ll likely experience an encounter with a pesky mosquito. On what might seem an unrelated topic, have you ever wondered how the founders of the settlement that would become St. Louis chose this spot? The answer is at least partly in the insistent whine of that mosquito.
Missouri is home to approximately 50 different species of mosquitoes, all of which belong to the fly family. Most people are familiar with the fact that these insects feed on blood. Only female mosquitoes require a blood meal, though, from which they derive the necessary protein to fuel their reproductive duties. Males primarily feed on flower nectar and play a crucial role in the process of pollination.Females use the proteins from blood to develop anywhere from 100 to 400 eggs. The mother mosquito then looks for standing water into which to deposit those eggs. In just a few days, larvae called “wigglers” emerge. For a week, these worm-like wigglers hang near the water’s surface and breathe air through tubes in their abdomens. If threatened, they wiggle deeper into the water.
After pupating for two or three days, the mosquitoes transform into adults and mate. From there, the females are off to find blood. The insect’s entire life cycle is just a few weeks.
Mosquitos do have the potential to carry diseases; in some parts of the world, this includes viruses that bring West Nile, Zika, yellow fever, and dengue fever. Mosquitoes can also transmit parasites that cause malaria. This made the lowly insect a tiny tyrant that dictated human settlement.
The still waters of swamps and marshes provide an ideal habitat for species of mosquitoes that can harbor the malaria parasite. Historically, however, people were not aware of this connection. They blamed the swamps themselves for causing malaria, because of septic air. In fact, the disease gets its name from the Latin mal aria, or “bad air”.
When establishing frontier settlements, pioneers throughout Missouri and the country went out of their way to avoid “malaria swamps”. The presence of these swamps had a powerful influence on the locations where people ultimately chose to settle.
For example, the town of Ste. Genevieve was initially built in the fertile Mississippi River floodplain. After the 1785 flood, it was relocated two miles farther inland and uphill to avoid the swampy and disease-prone conditions of the river bottom.
Even the founders of St. Louis itself were compelled to unwittingly pay deference to the humble mosquito. French and Spanish settlers chose to establish their settlements on the high river bluffs, which they saw as having better air quality. The settlers avoided the swampy lowlands along the water. These places they associated with an atmosphere of sickness and fevers. It was where the mosquitoes ruled, the clandestine carriers.
Next time you feel the irritating bite of a mosquito, it’s probably not much comfort to know it’s only a mother gathering resources she needs to raise her young. But it might be fascinating to realize that you’re swatting at a tiny yet historically significant creature. An insect that influenced the founding of cities.