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Mosquitoes in Arizona are annoying enough when they are buzzing around you and leaving itchy bites. Unfortunately, they also happen to be carriers of some of the more nasty diseases on the plant including the West Nile Virus.

Do you spend a lot of time outdoors? While playing in the sun can be fun, you should know that pesky mosquitoes carry an array of viral diseases that could be life-threatening.

Although most people have heard about the correlation between mosquitoes and the West Nile virus, there are many diseases carried by mosquitoes that the general population does not know about.

Sadly, if a news station does not report on a person contracting a “mosquito disease” most people will not know that these diseases even exist. Mosquitoes are one of the dirtiest, and deadliest, creatures are known to man, and these little bothers may just be responsible for the man than you think.

Some of the viral diseases carried by mosquitoes include:

• LaCross encephalitis
• Japanese encephalitis
• West Nile virus
• Louis encephalitis
• Ross River Fever
• Rift Valley fever
• Epidemic polyarthritis
• Dengue fever
• Yellow fever
• And many other types of invasive diseases.

West Nile Virus is certainly nothing to be disregarded when going outside. If you are going into an area where mosquitoes are prevalent, you should definitely wear insect repellent.

That being said, most people infected never know they have the virus because their body defeats it without excessive problems.

Mosquitoes are solely responsible for malaria, which happens to be the world’s leading cause of premature death. Since most North American news stations do not report on deaths caused by malaria, most of us are entirely unaware of the real threat that mosquitoes can pose.

More than 5.3 million deaths occur each year due to the mosquito genus Anopheles, which carries the malaria virus – children under the age of five account for most of these deaths.

Though the genus Anopheles is not usually found within North America, almost all mosquitoes are capable of carrying the filariasis worm, which causes the disease elephantiasis – 40 million people worldwide are currently dealing with some form of elephantiasis.

Even though all of these statistics are scary, they are not the most terrifying part of the whole mosquito epidemic.

As people age, mosquito bites are often undetected. Though children often swell up and turn red upon receiving a bite, adults tend to build up an immunity to mosquitoes as they receive more and more bites.

In short, you could be infected by a disease that was carried by a mosquito, and not even know about it.

While some types of mosquitoes cannot be deterred, the mosquitoes found throughout North America can usually be warded off with the application of a natural mosquito repellent.

Mosquitoes tend to stay away from people that are armed with special products, and this is exactly what you should be aiming for.

Keep mosquitoes away from your body, and keep your health intact by being prepared; remaining educated; and using a mosquito repellent that is guaranteed to work.