Mosquito love

Check the calendar, kids: Earth has solsticed, placing Minnesotans in the full throes of sweet, sweet summer. And yet, rather than kicking back and cracking open a celebratory Summit, many locals are sullying this fairest of seasons with another annual rite: complaining about mosquitoes. Nobody likes a flesh wound, but truth be told, there's more to those lake-loving, head-circling, and blood-gorging insects than just a pesky summertime buzzkill. Allow Decider to broaden your entomological horizons and curb your bitching with a little skeeter science:

The buzzing
That barely audible buzz that flits around your head and threatens your sanity? Enjoy it while you can: As you get older, your high-frequency hearing begins to fade, leaving you less likely to hear both the buzz and that dog-maddening screech at the end of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.” Some kid-sympathizing brainiac embraced this principle and designed the Mosquito Tone, a 17-kilohertz pitch that's audible to school kids but undetectable to most teachers. With this ingenious tool, students can be alerted to a text message while Ms. Wormwood unwittingly continues scribbling on the chalkboard. You can test your own high-pitch hearing here.

Mating call
We’re not quite done with the buzzing yet. A couple of years ago, two biologists discovered that male mosquitoes slow or quicken their wing-beating frequency to sync up almost precisely with that of a prospective female, which aids in their mid-air baby-making. Sexy! Twin Cities artist Ali Momeni created an installation around this idea for the 2009 Spark Festival. After attaching microphones and loudspeakers to a male mosquito, he digitally created a faux-female buzz and broadcasted the sound of the male synchronizing with that seductive tone. You can give it a listen here.

Gender issues
Like most insects, mosquitoes inspire a plethora of factoids, which could help earn you the green wedge in Trivial Pursuit. For example: You may hold 50 percent more malice towards the little buggers than you need to, as only female mosquitoes care to sip your blood. Gary Larson, the legendary cartoonist of The Far Side, learned that one the hard way when he published a strip depicting a male mosquito as a bloodsucker. Several straight-faced fans took him to task for the inaccuracy; Larson admitted his mistake, but was careful to point out that no one saw fit to complain about the mosquito wearing a tie, carrying a briefcase, or being able to turn the doorknob to get into his house.

DEET-proof?
Another relevant nugget: In Japanese folklore, a mosquito is the reincarnation of someone who lived wickedly and was subsequently reborn as a Jiki-ketsu-gaki, a bloodthirsty ghost. Some believe the only way to kill these coffin-dwelling phantoms is by driving a wooden stake through their hearts, but a plastic swatter from Target might be more effective for the creatures swirling around your head. For more on killing these little beasties, here's this instructive Monty Python segment: