Flying Pins Mosquitoes are insects belonging to the order Diptera. Only females bite. Female mosquitoes have a long piercing proboscis (mouthpart) they use to extract blood from other animals. After mating with a male, the female needs a meal of blood to keep her developing eggs healthy. Male mosquitoes do not have a proboscis which allows them to pierce skin. Their food source is nectar. Mosquitoes can carry diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever to humans, encephalitis to humans and horses, and heartworm to dogs. There are four distinct stages of the mosquito life cycle. The egg, larva, pupa and a