# Mosquitoes- How long can they live? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2002, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquitoes-how-long-can-they-live/108030 "2002-05-09T05:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Professor\_Plum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Professor\_Plum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Professor_Plum)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquitoes-how-long-can-they-live/108030/1 "2002-05-09T05:11:14Z")
How long can a female Culex (the type that transmits encephalitis, etc.) mosquito live without drinking blood? ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquitoes-how-long-can-they-live/108030/2 "2002-05-09T09:14:33Z")
According to [this](http://www.mosquito.org/mosquito.html) website, the answer depends on factors such as temperature, etc. However, I think your question is a bit misleading… mosquitos do not live primarily on blood. IIRC (from a conversation years ago with my father, a forest entomologist), the primary source of nutrition for mosquitos is nectar from flowers, not blood. A female mosquito will try to get a blood meal before laying eggs so that the extra nutrition will improve the odds of the eggs hatching. Again, though, that conversation was a long time ago… ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosquitoes-how-long-can-they-live/108030/3 "2002-05-09T09:26:28Z")
I saw a quick segment on mosquitoes on a local environmental show here and they mentioned adult mosquitoes live for a month or so. Not sure how long they stay in larval form though…