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Blondes Have More Fun

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Humans Often Play a Role in Mosquito Sex: When it comes to biting humans, it's the females who do the dirty work. A pregnant mosquito will sink her pointy proboscis into your hide just before she lays her eggs.

Of course, there are some 2,500 varieties of these mini-vampires. Only a few feast on human blood. Still, a human often comes in handy in egg production. If you are scratching, itching and a little too red, just remember that you're helping someone's mother.

Insect Politics: The mosquito has made its presence felt. Through malaria, yellow fever, and other insect-borne diseases, our little winged foes have claimed the lives of Alexander the Great, Oliver Cromwell and various popes and world leaders. They've held back Roman legions, helped defeat the Spanish Armada, and thwarted Gengis Khan's attempt to conquer the world.

Think of the mosquito as a protector of the weak. When spears and guns won't stop a would-be band of plunderers, mosquito-borne illnesses will often do the trick. "In Africa and Asia, you'll find that explorers contracted malaria and other diseases that the locals were immune to," Spielman says.

Many historians believe Africans were able to rebel on the Amistad slave ship because the crew had been stricken by yellow fever. Not bad for a critter the size of a grape seed.

It wasn't until 1890 that scientists suspected the bug's role in the spread of many diseases. But even today, malaria kills more than 1 million annually, or one person every 12 seconds. And when you consider the international problems cause by West Nile virus and various strains of encephalitis, you realize that not much has changed.

That Sexy Buzz Does that buzzing sound turn you on? It drives male mosquitoes into a swarming frenzy. A female achieves an extremely high "C" note by flapping more than 500 times a minute. Spielman notes that a power station in Canada that made the same note began malfunctioning. Turns out, it was gummed up by tens of thousands of mosquitoes, all males, apparently sexually attracted to the hum of the machinery.

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