Asian Tiger Mosquitoes

Facts About the Asian Tiger Mosquito

• Scientific name: Aedes albopictus
• Appearance: Black with silvery-white stripes and banded legs, hence the “tiger” name
• Size: Usually under 1/4 inch long

Asian Tiger Mosquito Behavior

Native to Southeast Asia, this mosquito reached Texas in 1985 inside a shipment of used tires. It spread quickly along shipping routes and is now one of the most widespread invasive mosquitoes in the country.

How to Recognize an Asian Tiger Mosquito

This is a small mosquito, about a quarter inch long or less, with a black body covered in patches of bright white scales. The giveaway is a single white stripe running down the center of the head and back. The legs are banded black and white.

Look-alike: the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is also black and white and also bites by day. Instead of one center stripe, it has a lyre-shaped pattern on its back: two curved outer lines with two thin straight lines between them. Both species live in Florida, and the yellow fever mosquito remains common in some urban parts of South Florida.

Where it lives: it breeds in small amounts of water held in containers, both natural ones like tree holes and plants and man-made ones like buckets and tires. Adults rest in shady, humid spots such as shrubs, ground cover and under decks.

What it eats: only females bite. They need blood to produce eggs and will feed on people, pets, birds and other animals. Both males and females drink plant nectar for energy.

In Florida: the species was first found in the state in the mid-1980s and has since spread throughout Florida, where it is now one of the most common mosquitoes around homes. It is active much of the year in South Florida and through the warm months farther north, with the highest numbers during the rainy season. For more on its bite, see Asian tiger mosquito bites and treatment.