What makes mosquitoes so good at getting under our skin?

Mosquitoes kill more than a million people every year by transmitting diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, making the insects the animal kingdom’s most prolific killer of humans by a wide margin. But what makes them so good at getting through our skin to access our bloodstream? Part of KQED’s science documentary series Deep Look, this short video offers a close-up of how female mosquitoes use a sophisticated set of evolutionary tools – essentially, six ultra-sharp needles – to pierce our skin and suck our blood.