Mosquitoes Are a Hazard to Your Pet's Health Too

None of us likes to be bitten by mosquitoes and sometimes it is easy to forget that our pets suffer from mosquito bites too.
Mosquitoes feed on blood, and they will take it where they can find it. Only the female bites, the males feed on plant nectar. While the female may have preferred hosts, she must have protein from blood to produce eggs. And, one blood meal is often not enough to produce a clutch of eggs. Often the female will feed, rest to digest the meal and feed again up to three times before she can get enough protein to produce her eggs.
So, each time your pet is outside in mosquito territory, it is a sitting target for a hungry female mosquito that is eager to reproduce.
Many species of mosquitoes will choose birds over humans or pets, but they have even been known to feed on frogs and other reptiles, if that is what they can find for a blood meal.
Most responsible pet owners know of the hazards from mosquito bites associated with heartworm disease in cats and dogs. Mosquitoes carry parasite larvae, which they transmit to your pet once they bite. The parasite larvae then migrate to the heart and major circulatory organs in your pet, where it develops into an adult worm that can reach ten inches in length.