Iceland was one of the last places on the planet that mosquitoes had not reached. That’s now history

For centuries, Iceland has held the ‘privilege’ of being one of the few habitable places on Earth where mosquitoes did not exist, something that can be a source of envy for many, especially with the arrival of summer. All thanks to its particular climate, with constant cycles of freezing and thawing that prevented the larvae from maturing, it acted as an insurmountable biological shield. However, climate change and human action have just broken down this barrier and this Icelandic ‘exceptionality’ has ended.

The discovery. The history of this biological invasion starts in October 2025where Björn Hjaltason, a resident of the Kjós region noticed the presence of some unusual insects in his garden. From there he wanted to see them closer, and to capture them he used a fairly rudimentary method based on some ropes soaked in red wine.

With this trap he obtained three specimens that were immediately sent to the Icelandic Institute of Natural Sciences, where the entomologist Matthías Alfreðsson confirmed the unthinkable: they were two females and a male. Culiseta annulataa species of mosquito common in Europe, but which had never managed to establish itself on the island of ice and fire.

How have they arrived? Their disembarkation in the country may have been conditioned to different situations, such as travel aboard ships that came from Europe or even in the landing gear of commercial airplanes. All this, added to increasingly higher temperatures in Iceland, means that we are facing a major ecosystem problem.

A hot Arctic. This very rudimentary discovery has served as a substrate for a profound analysis that has been published in the magazine Science, where it is noted that the appearance of mosquitoes in Iceland is only the symptom of a radical transformation throughout the Arctic.

And global warming is affecting this region at breakneck speed, since the Arctic is warming four times faster than the world average. This thermal increase is not only allowing invasive species to survive the Icelandic winters, but is causing a serious biological imbalance throughout the boreal region.

A domino effect. The arrival of mosquitoes and the alteration of the populations of native arthropods is not only a problem of annoying bites for its inhabitants or tourists, but it is a threat for birds. Here the early thaw is causing the peak of insect abundance to no longer coincide with the breeding season of waders, leaving them without their main source of food when they need it most.

Furthermore, the large swarms of mosquitoes in arctic areas are already affecting the behavior of reindeer, which spend vital energy fleeing from the swarms instead of feeding, compromising their winter survival. That is why experts point to the need to control the arthropods that arrive in the region and, above all, a tracking system for these ecological changes that are so relevant.

Images | Andreas M

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