Animal · Thailand, Vietnam, China
Asian tiger mosquito
Aedes albopictus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The Asian tiger mosquito is a small black mosquito with bright white stripes on its legs, and unlike most mosquitoes it bites in broad daylight. It came from the forests of Southeast Asia and spread around the world in loads of used tyres.
Picture credit: Nativeplants garden (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sixto Emmanuel Picones Puebla (CC BY-SA 4.0) · James Gathany, CDC (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the Asian tiger mosquito live?
Home: Gardens and cities wherever water collects in containers.
In the wild it lives in these countries: Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Italy, France, the United States, Brazil.
The short profile
Fully grown: under 1 cm long, legs striped black and white. It weighs about 0 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
Only the female bites. Males live on flower nectar their whole lives, and females drink nectar too, but they need the protein in blood to make eggs. The eggs are laid just above the water line in anything that holds a puddle: a bucket, a plant saucer, a blocked gutter, an old tyre lying in a yard. That last one explains how the species travelled. Used tyres shipped between continents carry rainwater and eggs, and eggs can survive for months while dry. Since the nineteen eighties the tiger mosquito has reached Europe, the Americas and Africa this way. It never flies far, usually less than two hundred metres from where it hatched, so emptying standing water in a garden really does cut the number of bites.
Find it on the globe
Asian tiger mosquito is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why do only female mosquitoes bite?
Because they need the protein in blood to make their eggs. For everyday energy both males and females drink flower nectar, so a male mosquito never bites anyone at all.
How did the tiger mosquito reach Europe?
Mostly in shipments of used tyres. Rainwater collects inside a stacked tyre, eggs are laid there, and the eggs survive for months even when the water dries up, so they travel across the sea and hatch in a new country.
How can you get rid of tiger mosquitoes in a garden?
Tip out standing water every week. Plant saucers, buckets, watering cans, blocked gutters and toys are enough for a brood, and since the mosquito rarely flies more than two hundred metres, the ones biting you probably grew up nearby.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: