A ballooning impact on human health from mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever is one of the often-cited threats from global warming.

Recently, researchers have been teasing out information on an apparent paradox: warmer and wetter weather means more mosquito breeding but the insects themselves have an innate susceptibility to extreme heat.

At present, the Aedes aegypti mosquito is on track to overlap with 50% of the world’s population by 2050, dramatically increasing the number of people who could potentially be exposed to diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika, scientists say.

We don’t know how this is going to play out, says Professor Elizabeth McGraw, from Penn State University, US, but extreme temperature events could potentially reduce mosquito survival.