Do male mosquitoes bite humans? Turns out, they might be vegans.

This all started because we don't have air conditioning. The recent hot spell had pushed my family toward rebellion, and my position as exalted high poobah was in dire peril. Without fast action, I would likely be exiled to a tent in the backyard, forced to eat from the birdfeeder and use the hose as a shower.

My pretty rotten solution was to exhume fans from the basement. Some of them needed a thorough cleaning, so I set up camp on the front porch, taking them apart with a screwdriver and wiping down the blades.

That's when the mosquitoes moved in. I was swatting, losing screws and randomly squirting Windex into the sky to keep them away. But nothing helped: I was a panicky pincushion at the mercy of voracious vampires.

Later, while ruminating over my misadventure with a restorative Yuengling Light Lager, I began to wonder about the relentless blood passion of mosquitoes. Why can't they just munch on trail mix or lick a Popsicle?

I turned to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for guidance. I immediately stumbled on three key points: "Female mosquitoes bite people and animals to get a blood meal. Most female mosquitoes cannot produce eggs without a blood meal. Male mosquitoes do not bite people and animals."

So it seems my blood is essential for future mosquito generations. I guess that's OK, because I like to think I'm a charitable, pay-it-forward kind of person.

But wait: male mosquitoes don't bite?

This was a revelation. I always figured every part of the mosquito population was conspiring against me at all times. What the heck are these layabout male mosquitoes up to all day?

There was only one thing to do: ring up Gabrielle Sakolsky, superintendent of the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project. Sakolsky loves talking about mosquitoes, but she seemed a bit indifferent toward the males.

"I don't pay much attention to them, because they don't bite people," she said.

And since male mosquitoes don't bite, they don't transmit diseases to people, one of Sakolsky's biggest concerns. Without those pesky biting appointments cluttering their calendars, male mosquitoes can concentrate on three things, according to Sakolsky: resting, eating and mating.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I think we may be able to categorize male mosquitoes as vegans.

"They eat nectar from flowers," said Sakolsky.

That sounds poetic and peaceful, but remember, those males are key players in future bothersome generations. They just need to find a mate.

And they are specially equipped to find females, so the tango of reproduction can continue. Sakolsky said male mosquitoes have feathery antennae that allow them to sense the vibration of female mosquito wingbeats.

"If you have a tuning fork at that vibration the males respond to it," she wrote in a later email when I asked more nutty questions.

On the hunt for a feathery antennae

I decided to head back into the wild and see if I could tell the difference between male and female mosquitoes. I really wanted to see the feathery antennae on the males, but despite my best squinting it all looked like a blur. And some of that blur bit me.

So I reached out to the incredibly talented bug photographer Salvador Vitanza, longtime integrated pest management extension agent for El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas. Vitanza sent over a humdinger of a pic, showing a male Western rock pool mosquito. The antenna was intoxicating!

This scientific quest has kind of mellowed me out about mosquitoes. After all, they are just trying to make a living: sliding along the evolutionary highway, having babies, drinking nectar, wiggling their antennae. Are we that different?

This peaceful vibe will probably last a day or two, until they bite my ankles again. Then, it's war!

Eric Williams, when not solving Curious Cape Cod mysteries, writes about a variety of ways to enjoy the Cape, the weather, wildlife and other subjects. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @capecast.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Do male mosquitoes bite? A look at Cape Cod's forgotten insect.