Michael Farrell, age 11, of Londonville, New York, forhis question:

Do mosquitoes have any natural enemies?

Every animal species has natural enemies of some sort. Otherwise it would multiply beyond bounds, deplete its food supply and upset the balanced ecology. Like most insects, mosquitoes produce multitudes of eggs and only enough survive to lay eggs for the next generation. The rest become part of the food chains that directly or indirectly support the whole community of plants and animals.

Mosquitoes are aquatic insects that spend the first three stages of their life cycle in the water. Their clusters of small pale eggs are floating rafts, eagerly devoured by frogs and fish, beetles and birds that favor swamps and lazy streams. The larvae are wriggly water grubs, eaten by frogs and fishes. These and other aquatic insect eaters also devour mosquito pupae, hanging below the water's skin. When the survivors finally hatch into winged adults, they are greeted by hungry bats and various insectivorous birds. So you can see that the mosquito has plenty of enemies.