Bug FAQCattail Mosquito
Coquillettidia perturbans · Order: Diptera · Family: Culicidae
Source: Wikipedia
Adult cattail mosquitoes are about 2 to 15 mm long. They live in warm, humid low-lying wetlands with abundant cattails and rushes. The species occurs on every continent except Antarctica.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Their legs show alternating dark and light scales, the thorax sides have clusters of bristles, and the wing and palpal scales are teardrop-shaped with alternating colors near the veins.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults range from roughly 2 mm up to 10 to 15 mm in length.
Source: Wikipedia
Does it bite or sting?
Adults feed on blood and can transmit Eastern equine encephalitis to humans, horses, birds and occasionally emus, and also spread Jamestown Canyon virus from deer.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They prefer low-elevation, high-vegetation areas that are warm and humid, such as swamps with cattails (Typha) and rushes (Juncus).
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Larvae and pupae pierce the air-filled tissues of aquatic plants like cattails to obtain oxygen.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Cattail mosquitoes have been recorded on all continents except Antarctica.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 42 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What illnesses can they spread?
They are known vectors of Eastern equine encephalitis and Jamestown Canyon virus.
Source: Wikipedia
Where are cattail mosquitoes found?
They live in warm, humid wetlands with cattails and rushes and are present on every continent except Antarctica.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Culicidae)
Asian Tiger MosquitoAedes albopictusCan spread germs or disease
House Mosquito ComplexCulex pipiensCan spread germs or disease
Yellow Fever MosquitoAedes aegyptiCan spread germs or disease
Inland Floodwater MosquitoAedes vexansCan spread germs or disease
Asian Bush MosquitoAedes japonicusCan bite
Southern House MosquitoCulex quinquefasciatusCan spread germs or diseaseSources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coquillettidia_perturbans
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.