In the Eye of the Tiger

There is no shortage of mosquitoes in North America, and adding one more variety might seem like just a minor uptick in summertime’s itchy-scratchy. But the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, comes with some particularly irritating characteristics. It’s an aggressive hit-and-run biter that frequently lives in close contact with humans. It’s a daytime feeder that dines on humans, dogs, livestock, birds and a host of wild animals. “The feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus is very catholic,” says Duane Gubler, a vector-borne disease expert at Duke–National University of Singapore. “It feeds on everything.”