I can't remember the last time I've seen a mosquito near my home in Long Island. A spraying some time ago took care of that problem. Other areas aren't so lucky. There, a mosquito bite can take a life.

The overlooked nature of mosquitoes is the subject of Bill Gates' blog post this week. As a graphic illustrates on his post, 725,000 people die each year because of the blood suckers. The diseases they carry (yellow fever, dengue fever, and encephalitis) are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal, including humans.

In developing countries where pest control and health care is limited, they are of special concern.

"For many of us, mosquitoes might seem more pests than predators," Gates wrote in a post for Mashable. "But in a large part of the world, particularly among the poor, mosquitoes are a blight."

Gates is calling his recent campaign "mosquito week" as a way to make a point against the Discovery Channel's annual "Shark Week," which will begin August 4th this year. While sharks receive a week's worth of cable and contribute to only 10 human deaths per year, mosquitoes receive little attention but are the most deadly animals on the planet.

Over 2,500 species of mosquitoes exist and they are found everywhere but Antarctica (and apparently the middle of Long Island, too). Historically, Gates notes the many lives lost via mosquitoes during the construction of the Panama Canal. He also points out the way they affect populations. Because more exist near the water, mosquitoes force people inland.

Since at least 2012, tropical diseases such as the ones often carried by mosquitoes have been an important issue to Gates. That year, he helped convene the CEO's of the world's leading drug companies in Paris, where they pledged to fight tropical diseases. Recently, he re-convened them to track their progress. (Their biggest contributions have come in fund raising and developing a prototype pill for treating sleeping sickness.)

On a final note, the intense but light-hearted Gates doctored the title of the cultish hit, "Sharknado" into a the mosquito-themed, "Skeeternado."