First Mosquitoes in Iceland, Signal a Warning to the World: When the North Lost its Buzz-Free Haven

In generations, Icelanders have proudly shared an odd boast: their island, in the midst of glaciers and geysers, was one of the only places on Earth where mosquitoes dared not fly. That small comfort of a summer without the whine of wings, may have just come to an end.

Last week, amateur naturalist Björn Hjaltason was on a quiet night watch in Kjós, a glacial valley near Reykjavík, when he noticed something strange on his wine-soaked moth ropes. “I could tell right away that this was something I had never seen before. The last fortress seems to have fallen”– he wrote on Facebook.

His discovery that were two female and one male Culiseta Annulata mosquitoes, was confirmed by entomologists at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. The species is hardy, capable of surviving cold winters, and is common across Europe and North Africa. How it found its way to Iceland, no one yet knows. Some speculate they may have arrived via shipping containers from nearby ports like Grundartangi.