You may be wanting to dress up as one of the world’s scariest animals this Halloween.
Perhaps you’re looking for a set of sharp teeth and some fur to wrap around you like a lion, or a large fin so that you can mimic being a shark? Maybe you want to find some long tubes to replicate legs and go as a spider? Or looking for some snakeskin and something you can fashion into a forked tongue to be a snake?
However, if you truly want to go as one of the world’s deadliest animals, the reality is that the mosquito is the insect you need to be dressing as. They have been listed as the most dangerous to people by the World Health Organisation.
They very rarely come up as one of the usual suspects, but their bite cannot be ignored, and the devastating impact that they can have on the areas in which they live can often be worse than any of the animals you would consider to be traditionally scary.
Sharks, for example, get a lot of negative press and attention - with whole films made dedicated to the fear of these creatures. But they are actually hugely overrated as killers. In 2018, the death toll from shark attacks was four, a drop from the annual average of 6.
Snakes, however, do take a devastating toll: the World Health Organization estimates 81,000 to 138,000 deaths annually from snakebites. But that's nothing compared to mosquitoes. One type of mosquito alone, Anopheles, is responsible for nearly 600,000 malaria deaths each year, making it by far the most dangerous animal on the planet.
Two other mosquitoes, Aedes and Culex cause such ailments as Dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile fever. All of which can cause serious harm or even death to those affected.
Mosquitoes get even more frightening when you consider that they move freely, and can thrive almost anywhere with the right temperature and enough water - which means that these tiny insects can be present almost anywhere. What’s more, certain species of these insects will come out at night, and feed on humans and animals when they are unaware and sleeping.
So, how do you protect yourselves against the world’s deadliest animal? THEYEs range of mosquito repellents - which are available on Amazon and online at www.theye.co.uk - are cruelty-free and DEET free methods of repellent and prevention, proven to be effective even in high risk countries.