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In some places they’re annoying, in others they’re downright dangerous – there’s very few people who would say that they actually have a special place in their heart for the mosquito.
If you’ve ever spent a vacation trying not to scratch the irritatingly itchy bites on your legs, you’ll probably have found yourself wishing you’d visited a place where these bloodthirsty creatures didn’t exist.
And if you’ve visited or live in a country in which mosquito bites are the leading cause of unpleasant or even deadly diseases, you’ll be all-to-familiar with the anxiety of trying to avoid these dangerous pests.
The real truth is that in many places, the mosquito is unavoidable – but there are a few places on Earth in which mosquitos do not exist. However, an unpleasant Icelandic discovery points to this not being the case for much longer.
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According to the Icelandic Institute of Natural History’s Matthías Alfreðsson, quoted by Icelandic news outlet RÚV, three mosquitos which were discovered in Iceland in early October 2025, officially mark the end of Iceland’s status as a mosquito-free island.
The troublesome bugs were found in the picturesque area of Kjós (or Kjósarhreppur) by Icelander Björn Hjaltason, who posted about his discovery on a Facebook group called ‘Insects in Iceland’:
“At dusk on the evening of October 16th, I caught sight of a strange fly on a red wine ribbon. I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly. It was a female.”
And that wasn’t the end of Hjaltason discoveries, as he located two more mosquitos, immediately passing them onto the Institute of Natural History for formal identification and documenting.
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Though these are the only three mosquitos to so far be found, Alfreðsson suspects that they are not the last that Icelanders will see of the annoying creature.
That’s because the particular species – Culiseta Annulata, the largest mosquito found in the UK – tolerates the cold well.
Since the discovery, scientists have been hypothesising that this is yet more evidence of the destructive nature of climate change, since Iceland’s warming temperatures are likely making the country more comfortable for bugs that, whether by plane or boat, ultimately end up there.
And since the discovery, Antarctica is now officially the only country in the world without mosquitoes.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.