I was about your same age when I first learned of the buffalo gnat or black flies.
They are common in areas with running water. They have a painful bite as they feed on blood. They are nasty little bastages.
I had never seen or heard of them, and everyone around me at the time acted like I was saying I had never heard of a mosquito.
They tried one year to reproduce in our waterfall for the koi pond, as we saw a few. We are guessing the skinks, or the toads ate the larvae at the larvae. Mother nature took care of us that time. The koi eat all mosquito larvae so they are never an issue at the pond.