Story highlights The giant mosquitoes have zebra legs and are two to three times as big as normal bloodsuckers

They are not known to carry human diseases

(CNN) Ouch! The floodwaters that followed Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina on September 14, have spawned thousands of mega-mosquitoes across the state, according to entomologists.

These giants have zebra-striped legs and are two to three times as big as the normal bloodsuckers encountered during summer, said Michael H. Reiskind , an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at North Carolina State University. "Definitely noticeably bigger," he said. "If you see mosquitoes often, then you're going to say, 'Wow, that's a big mosquito.' "

A gallinipper compared with a penny.

The good news is that this species, called Psorophora ciliata by scientists but commonly known as " gallinippers ," are not likely to make anyone sick, Reiskind said. "They can carry dog heartworm, but in general, they don't actually carry human diseases."

"That being said, being bitten by a giant mosquito or being bitten hundreds of times by a giant mosquito can be, in and of itself, a public health issue," he said. Some people also have more severe reactions to bites. "It can be truly disturbing. I have an 8-year-old son who reacts really badly to mosquito bites."

Reiskind explained that whether mosquito bites are painful or lasting varies between people for such reasons as individual immune system responses and previous experience with a mosquito species. In the case of the gallinippers, though, "big mosquito, big proboscis -- that's the mouth part that bites," he said. "It's a painful bite."

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