[HN Gopher] Mosquitoes discovered in Iceland for the first time
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Mosquitoes discovered in Iceland for the first time
Author : breve
Score : 175 points
Date : 2025-10-21 20:39 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
| Havoc wrote:
| Having been seeing unseasonal ones in London too as of late
| pfdietz wrote:
| Historically there was malaria in southern England up to
| Victorian times.
| abstractspoon wrote:
| Getting more in the middle of winter in NSW Australia too
| lazyeye wrote:
| Never understood how mosquitos could survive the sub-zero
| temperatures of an Alaskan winter for example.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/how-mosquitoe...
|
| TL;DR: Eggs and glycerol.
| astrobe_ wrote:
| Insects are more resilient than mammals in many ways. For
| instance, radioresistance [1]. Plus fast, quantity-oriented
| breeding cycles that makes them more reactive to changes in the
| environment.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioresistance
| behnamoh wrote:
| What's the average life span of mosquitoes? Assuming the climate
| in Iceland has become warm enough for them to survive there, how
| did they get there in the first place? Is the atmosphere just
| full of insect eggs?
| dmicah wrote:
| They probably hitched a ride on human travel. The article says
| "It's unclear how the mosquito arrived in Iceland, but theories
| include the possibility it came via ships or containers."
| pixl97 wrote:
| Stagnant fresh water in a ship most likely.
| axus wrote:
| Isn't Iceland the green island, and Greenland the icy one?
| lenerdenator wrote:
| I went to Iceland for a trip in very late December. It's
| decidedly not green in winter.
| bonzini wrote:
| Tomorrow is going to be the first snowy day in Reykjavik
| this year.
| BaardFigur wrote:
| Iceland is plenty icy enough on its own. Lots of glaciers.
| But instead of covering 99% of the island, like Greenland,
| it's just a significant portion of it, instead. Also the
| weather there isn't particularly warm or great, even if it's
| more hospitable than Greenland
| tokai wrote:
| Iceland is more of a black stony desert.
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| The species in the article is already adapted to cold weather.
| They will find out in the spring if it is adapted well enough
| to survive the icelandic winter
|
| It is remarkable this is the first time mosquitos have been
| found in the wild in Iceland though. Even if they died out in
| the winter, you would expect _some_ to hide in shipping
| containers and lay eggs all summer. Which is how we got Tiger
| Mosquitos in New Jersey, and now it doesn 't get cold enough to
| kill them and it is so much worse than it used to be.
| cogogo wrote:
| Saw a tiger mosquito for the first time in Boston last fall.
| Reported it to the state but it is a losing battle and they
| are steadily establishing residency. Back again this season
| so a moderately cold winter still did not kill them off. They
| are extremely annoying as their primary prey are humans and
| they are very good at biting you without noticing - then
| comes the itch. Especially in late August into Oct.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_albopictus
| unyttigfjelltol wrote:
| Lived in Mass. many years, always thought striped-leg
| mosquitoes were the native variety....
|
| What did you think the city would do about it?
| BurningFrog wrote:
| There are mosquitos all across the arctic, in colder places
| that Iceland.
|
| They typically survive the winter in egg form.
| paul7986 wrote:
| Iceland per my visits isn't frigid on average 20 to 45 degrees
| Fahrenheit in January. In it's capital at least. Overall im
| surprised they called it IceLand vs. WindLand. The wind is
| fierce.
| kulahan wrote:
| There's a (probably apocryphal) story that it was done for
| advertising reasons. Someone wanted people to sell land.
| throwway120385 wrote:
| On old enough maps, I thought it was sometimes spelled Island
| not Iceland.
| macintux wrote:
| Dup: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45675851 (56 comments)
| stackedinserter wrote:
| I'm surprised that happened this year, with all those ships and
| travel. Mosquitos couldn't grasp hiding on cargo ships until now?
| CaptainOfCoit wrote:
| Could also be that mosquitos always managed to hitch a ride,
| but in so small numbers that they disappeared relatively
| quickly once they arrived, or it simply was too cold but some
| always appeared.
|
| But now when it's a bit warmer, the same amount arrives but
| more survive.
| whycome wrote:
| Also, more time for succeeding populations to have mutations
| that have better adapted to even the colder climate.
| James_K wrote:
| In order to produce a breeding population, several mosquitoes
| need to hitch a ride on the same ship and stay close enough
| together that they can mate after arriving. They also need to
| survive the trip over without that much food. I imagine its
| quite unlikely.
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| Strong disagree. One auto tire with a few cups of stagnant
| water can easily have dozens of larvae.
|
| On an entire ship? Probably hundreds of dozens.
| lithocarpus wrote:
| Birds can carry insects or their eggs all over the place too.
| mooops wrote:
| Likely human introduction. Far from being an isolated case:
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64446-3
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45661865
| I_dream_of_Geni wrote:
| Finally, Iceland can feel our pain....
| lepicz wrote:
| they have their own pain - there are those different
| mosquitoes, that tries to enter your every orifice. eyes, ears,
| nose, urethra. very annoying.
|
| after long journey we arrived into the camp. we wondered why we
| were the only ones there, so we got out of the car and there
| they were. a lot of them. that was the fastest i ever built a
| tent and we jumped in it and called it an early night :)
| lagniappe wrote:
| Urethra?
| spockz wrote:
| That through which the urine flows/exits.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I am surprised that I should be surprised. Aren't mosquitoes a
| well known nuisance in Greenland, which despite the name is
| colder than Iceland? I would have expected that mosquitos in
| Iceland were also entirely normal. TIL.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Greenland is pretty close to the main body of North America,
| they would only need to traverse 30 miles of water to get
| there. Whereas Iceland is about 200 miles from the closest
| point in Greenland.
| fluoridation wrote:
| Not sure Ellesmere Island counts as part of the main body of
| NA. If you exclude the Northern edge of Greenland, which also
| the most hostile I would assume, Greenland is about as close
| to NA as to Iceland.
| ant6n wrote:
| Actually there's a land border between Canada and Greenland.
| j_bum wrote:
| This travel blog was posted a bit ago on HN [0]. Much of the
| nature of Greenland was a shock for me to learn about,
| including the severe mosquitos.
|
| [0] https://matduggan.com/greenland-is-a-beautiful-nightmare/
| ant6n wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45396754
| ljf wrote:
| Midges and mosquitos are different things. And biting midges
| have only been in Iceland for 10 years or so.
|
| https://www.icelandreview.com/news/iceland-marks-ten-
| years-o...
| somenameforme wrote:
| Siberia is also known to have just _extremely_ brutal mosquito
| seasons. Turns out even -40C isn 't enough to do away with the
| little persistent blood suckers.
| jb1991 wrote:
| And Alaska.
| HowardStark wrote:
| Nothing killed my dream of a private island in Alaska quite
| so fast as elephant mosquitoes[0]
|
| [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxorhynchites_rutilus
| capitainenemo wrote:
| The wikipedia article you linked to says that the adults
| of that species feed only on nectar and do not suck
| blood.
| gruez wrote:
| >Tx. rutilus feeding behaviors make them strikingly
| different from a typical mosquito. Both adult males and
| females are strictly nectar-feeding and so they do not
| have a role in the transmission of pathogens to animals
| as in other mosquitoes.[7] Instead, their larvae are
| predacious and could potentially help curb the spread of
| diseases via vector mosquitoes. While they commonly prey
| on copepods, rotifers, ostracods, and chironomids, they
| also generally have a preference for certain species of
| mosquito larvae including common disease vectors such as
| Aedes albopictus, Aedes aegypti, and Aedes polynesiensis.
|
| what's the issue?
| mike978 wrote:
| In my experience Black flies[1] and no-see-ums[2] are far
| worse (not counting mosquitoes born disease). It's like a
| massive angry cloud of micro horseflies that intend to
| dismember you bite by bite.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_fly [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratopogonidae
| kgeist wrote:
| From what I know, Siberia's mosquitoes are even more brutal
| than those in the more temperate regions of Russia, and there
| are far more of them. Iceland's lack of mosquitoes doesn't
| seem to be due to the cold itself; something else must be at
| play. Iceland's average winter temperate is around -1C.
| mmmBacon wrote:
| Not surprising at all to me after several summer trips to
| interior Alaska. The mosquitoes are so thick that you inhale
| them sometimes; which is so disgusting. I slathered myself in
| Deet (the only thing that works) and was mostly ok. Even then
| they find every square mm that you missed. I sat down for 30
| minutes on a bench leaning forward talking to some people. My
| shirt pulled up about 1/2" (12mm). Later I counted 137 bites
| (some had merged due to swelling) across that strip of
| exposed flesh!
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| Interior British Columbia sounds similar. I used to work in
| the forest and they were so persistent, invasive, and
| aggressive. You had to just stop caring because they were
| relentless and virtually unstoppable. They'd end up in your
| clothing, in your hair, your nose, mouth... Sometimes the
| itch was so severe it burned.
|
| I don't miss that. It usually peaked and calmed down with
| the season, but if it was warm enough they were always
| around.
| noselasd wrote:
| Iceland does have a lot of gnats, midges, flies etc. that are
| just as big a nusance.
| dinkblam wrote:
| Mosquitoes, Snakes & Jellyfish. Everyone else is welcome to live
| long & prosper but those 3 we should just remove from our
| planet...
| lukan wrote:
| Ticks are sometimes more annoying and way less ecological
| useful. (without mosquitos for example there would be way less
| birds, bats, ...)
| jvanderbot wrote:
| Lots and lots of delicious ground-dwelling birds eat ticks
| (Turkey, Chicken, Quail), but they'd figure something else
| out.
| lukan wrote:
| But not as their main source of food as far as I know.
| Bugs, worms and spiders are way bigger and more common.
| acdha wrote:
| I've seen researchers suggesting that mosquitoes aren't a big
| enough part of anything's diet to be missed:
|
| https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a
| cultofmetatron wrote:
| there's a large amount of endangered and critically
| important species for which the strongest reason the
| general public accepts for why we should accommodate them
| is "they eat X in mosquitos every night"
| charliebwrites wrote:
| What are those species?
| kulahan wrote:
| Probably tons of bats and small nocturnal mammals.
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| The serious proposals to eliminate mosquitoes only propose to
| eliminate the mosquito species that carry nasty human
| diseases. If those species were eliminated other mosquito
| species would quickly expand to replace the eliminated
| species.
|
| So that's good for the birds, and bad for the humans that
| want to get rid of all the pesky annoying mosquitoes, not
| just get rid of mosquito born disease.
| henearkr wrote:
| Although you can just make the disease carriers immune to
| the disease.
|
| In that case, not even need to exterminate any species.
|
| That's typically done by introducing some Wolbachia in
| their gut.
| guelo wrote:
| Yes, all the ectoparasites, look it up. We've eliminated most
| endoparasites that used to live inside us. If we figure out
| how to, we should eliminate the ectos, including mosquitos.
| RajT88 wrote:
| Sneks eat a lot of rodents and various garden wreckers. Unless
| you live somewhere where they are poisonous and bitey, they are
| fine. Non-poisonous snakes far outnumber the poisonous ones.
| Zancarius wrote:
| I live in an area where we have these[1], and they're
| generally not something you see all that often. Their biggest
| danger isn't their venom (they're less venomous than the
| diamondback) so much as their curiosity, which can get them
| into locations they otherwise don't belong. They aren't
| overly aggressive snakes, and I've encountered them several
| times over the years.
|
| Alon with bullsnakes, they're extremely useful for getting
| rid of said rodents--which CAN carry awful pathogens, like
| hanta virus!
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-tailed_rattlesnake
| RajT88 wrote:
| I lived in NC for 6 months once. My boss at the time told
| me I'd need to watch out for copperheads in September when
| they come out. Indeed, I did have to shoo one off a bike
| path when September came.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| Venomous snakes far outnumber the poisonous ones.
| RajT88 wrote:
| I see I am dealing with a senior level pedant. Well done,
| sir!
| pfdietz wrote:
| We have only nonvenomous snakes where I live. They are welcome
| in the yard. My only concern is running over them with the
| mower.
| vee-kay wrote:
| Nah, snakes and jellyfish serve a valid purpose in the
| ecosystem.
|
| But yeah, mosquitoes and cockroaches should be made extinct,
| even if they are tough critters.
|
| Talking of tough though..
|
| Say hello to the only creature that's evolved to cheat death
| itself: the Immortal Jellyfish.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/immortal_jellyfish
| kulahan wrote:
| As I understand it, scientists believe that lobsters are also
| functionally immortal, just not invulnerable. I think the
| problem is that after a while, it takes so many calories to
| continue molting, they simply can't hold enough in their
| bodies or something? Anyways, they don't have an old age
| problem like you'd expect.
| vunderba wrote:
| Snakes and jellyfish sounds more like a phobia issue.
|
| The three on my "eliminate at all costs" have always been
| mosquitos, fleas, and ticks.
| hinkley wrote:
| "Who cares if the world gets 2deg warmer?"
|
| Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes care.
| kelnos wrote:
| While there are a lot of things we can blame on climate change,
| likely this isn't one of them. There are already several types
| of mosquitos adapted to cold temperatures, much lower than
| Iceland's. A rise in temperatures didn't help them get to
| Iceland.
| tb_technical wrote:
| Kill them while you still can. The mosquitos in the Midwest are
| so ferocious their swarms can kidnap small children.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I had an employee that hailed from MN.
|
| He had a T-shirt, with two mosquitoes on it.
|
| The caption was "Minnesota Air Force."
|
| When I lived in Nigeria, they had these swarms that were so
| dense, they could drain you of a measurable amount of blood, in
| a few minutes.
|
| My sister got caught in one. Not fun.
| lawn wrote:
| We have a "Mosquito Park" with the Jurassic Park logo, but
| with a mosquito on from where we live in the north of Sweden.
| nerdponx wrote:
| There is an hypothesis that dinosaurs were already in decline
| before the Cretaceous extinction due to the evolution of blood-
| sucking insects: https://news.oregonstate.edu/news/insect-
| attack-may-have-bee...
| nakamoto_damacy wrote:
| So in case of Iceland, can we call it Global Warming again? I
| miss that term.
|
| Has the future arrived, bit it's not equally distributed?
| minkeymaniac wrote:
| I never imagined that they could survive in Alaska. From the show
| Life below zero... take a look at
| these.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXq92PItsA0
| kulahan wrote:
| Shocking considering how cold it gets there. It's cold and dry
| and windy where I live, and there are nearly zero skeeters. I
| spend most of my afternoons on the porch, and I've been bit
| twice all summer. But this tracks with what I've heard from
| campers and hikers in that region. You wake up and your tent is
| covered in the little bastards.
| MathMonkeyMan wrote:
| I've read that migrating herds change their course from year to
| year to avoid the recently hatched swarms of mosquitoes.
| fishywang wrote:
| I have a magnet that's a mosquito with text "Alaska state
| bird".
| decimalenough wrote:
| Nosquitos themselves can't survive when it goes below freezing,
| but sadly their eggs are nearly indestructible. Siberia, Alaska
| and the northern parts of the Nordics are absolutely plagued
| with them in the summer, since snowmelt creates huge amounts of
| stagnant water that melts the eggs in a perfect habitat for
| breeding.
| badc0ffee wrote:
| Iceland doesn't have "extreme cold". It does go below freezing in
| the winter, though, and it's relatively isolated.
|
| Calgary has a few weeks of -30C every winter, and we are not
| short on mosquitoes.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| And calgary is _southern_ alberta, closer to the US border than
| it is to northern canada. Fort McMurray and areas north
| regularly get -40 weeks and still have loads of bugs come
| summer.
|
| (Being so far from any coast, the northern canadian praries
| often trade turns with inner siberia for the coldest place on
| earth during winter. The north pole is kept "warm" by the sea.)
| ludwigvan wrote:
| I hate mosquitoes with a passion. Might be the only species that
| I would want eradicated from Earth.
|
| From my experience (based in Turkey), mosquitoes seem to be
| getting more and more resilient. They have become an annoyance
| even in autumn, and I recall catching one last winter. A few
| decades ago, they used to only appear in late spring and summer.
| Anyone have a similar experience elsewhere?
| jamesblonde wrote:
| Ireland is still pretty much free of mosquitoes. I think it is
| the wind and exposure that keeps them out
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