Iceland Just Found Its First Mosquitoes (cnn.com) 44
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Iceland's frozen, inhospitable winters have long protected it from mosquitoes, but that may be changing. This week, scientists announced the discovery of three mosquitoes -- marking the country's first confirmed finding of these insects in the wild. Mosquitoes are found almost everywhere in the world, with the exception of Antarctica and, until very recently, Iceland, due to their extreme cold.
The mosquitoes were discovered by Bjorn Hjaltason in Kioafell, Kjos, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavik. "At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly," Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. "I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly," he added.
He contacted Matthias Alfreosson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason's house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreosson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country's Keflavik International Airport, Alfreosson told CNN, but this "is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland." Further monitoring will be needed in the spring to see whether the species can survive the winter and "truly become established in Iceland," Alfreosson said. He said he's not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but "warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive."
The mosquitoes were discovered by Bjorn Hjaltason in Kioafell, Kjos, in western Iceland about 20 miles north of the capital Reykjavik. "At dusk on October 16, I caught sight of a strange fly," Hjaltason posted in a Facebook group about insects, according to reports in the Icelandic media. "I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly," he added.
He contacted Matthias Alfreosson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, who drove out to Hjaltason's house the next day. They captured three in total, two females and a male. Alfreosson identified them as mosquitoes from the Culiseta annulata species. A single mosquito from a different species was discovered many years ago on an airplane at the country's Keflavik International Airport, Alfreosson told CNN, but this "is the first record of mosquitoes occurring in the natural environment in Iceland." Further monitoring will be needed in the spring to see whether the species can survive the winter and "truly become established in Iceland," Alfreosson said. He said he's not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but "warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive."
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Hands up all those who think the mosquito flew across the Atlantic on its own?
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The "winter kills mosquitoes" theory is absolute garbage. Go to any similarly c
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Mosquitoes migrate like birds do. With Iceland being an island far from any other land there's no mosquitoes migrating there like with Alaska. It is not "garbage" that winter kills mosquitoes, we know precisely how mosquitoes get to Alaska every summer.
Re: Evidence of global warming or something else? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, so a tiny invertebrate insect (not a mammal) surviving that far north, is a simple by-product of tourism?
Dude, I have some magic beans and a bridge in Brooklyn. Buy them from me. This offer is exclusively for you. Make me an offer.
For anyone not suffering from brain trauma similar to what Phineas Gage had, the reasons are clear. Climate change.
https://www.npr.org/sections/g... [npr.org]
Mosquito and airplanes (Score:4, Informative)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
Parasit Vectors . 2017 Dec 8;10:603. doi: 10.1186/s13071-017-2555-0
The first detected airline introductions of yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) to Europe, at Schiphol International airport, the Netherlands
A Ibañez-Justicia 1,, A Gloria-Soria 2, W den Hartog 1, M Dik 1, F Jacobs 1, A Stroo 1
PMCID: PMC5723084 PMID: 29221490
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/a... [nih.gov]
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Re: Evidence of global warming or something else? (Score:4, Informative)
You do realize it's summer in Iceland, right?
And that mosquitoes are common in Anchorage in the summer, which is about the same latitude as Iceland?
It's weird how true believers in The Science know so little about the world.
You do realize it's summer in Iceland, right?
And that mosquitoes are common in Anchorage in the summer, which is about the same latitude as Iceland?
It's weird how true believers in The Science know so little about the world.
20 year resident of Alaska here.
The mosquitos are way further north than Anchorage too. Hundreds of miles further north.
They're also the she of 747s and fucking mean!
There is a reason why we call the mosquito the "state bird".
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Re: Evidence of global warming or something else? (Score:5, Insightful)
You do realize it's summer in Iceland, right?
October is not summer.
And that mosquitoes are common in Anchorage in the summer, which is about the same latitude as Iceland?
Significantly different climates.
Less freezing in the winter, but also a significantly cooler and shorter summer.
It's weird how true believers in The Science know so little about the world.
I'd count yourself among them, being you just got confused how summer and hemispheres work.
While it's true that this, alone, isn't evidence of global warming- mosquitos have had decades to become a regular occurrence during the Icelandic summer. I've been through Iceland twice myself on the way to Europe in decades past.
Yet they chose now to do so. Their summers are warmer than they used to be- period. And you think that can't possibly be the cause?
Did you think the first mosquitos to a new area would be found in the dead of winter in a warming world?
Re: Evidence of global warming or something else? (Score:5, Insightful)
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That particular species is used to laying its eggs in water that freezes, and unfreezes when it's time for them to hatch.
Your less severe winters may actually be a boon... Or the opposite. Time will tell. Good luck.
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Trust me, soon what will interest you about them is why a coherent universe would ever produce such aggravating creatures.
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> And that mosquitoes are common in Anchorage in the summer, which is about the same latitude as Iceland?
Madrid is roughly at the same latitude as New York. Just saying..
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I generally use London and Calgary.
Why do they offer three-day forecasts? (Score:2)
To a "Climate Scientist" this is proof of global warming. To everyone else. This is evidence of increased tourism and transient traffic. I'm NOT siding with scientists on this one.
I'm quoting you against the censor trolls with mod points--but you are wrong and sound unintelligent, too. So excuse me for otherwise ignoring your comment as not worth the too obvious response.
However I have a related question about the accuracy of 3-day weather projections: "Why bother?" Whatever it predicted three days ago is quite unlikely to match the actual weather. Latest example: Three days ago the forecast for yesterday was only 10% chance of rain, but yesterday was actually quite rainy and the for
Mosquitoes suck! (Score:3)
Iceland, you need to do this right now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Look up all the techniques to get rid of mosquitos. Get rid of standing water, use every tool you can find to get rid of them. Get a screening program in place at your harbors and airports. Drop everything and GET RID OF THE MOSQUITOES!
If you want to understand how urgent this really is, send a representative to Nunavut in the spring. They will learn just what's at stake.
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Ever been to Iceland? It's a whole lot of empty. You won't be able to do any of those things.
Well... maybe you could screen at the airport, with teeny-tiny gates and signs saying "Mosquito Courtesy Lane", but relying on literate mosquitos might not be the best path to success.
But, odds are that ship has sailed. You don't accidentally find the only three mosquitos on a land mass.
Re:Iceland, you need to do this right now! (Score:5, Informative)
My guess is the first mitigation attempt should be releasing sterile male mosquitoes of those species they find.
Releasing sterile male mosquitoes is a method called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which involves releasing large numbers of male mosquitoes that have been sterilized by radiation. These sterile males then mate with wild female mosquitoes, but their eggs do not hatch, which suppresses the population over time. This technique is effective for mosquito control because it disrupts the natural reproductive cycle, reduces disease transmission, and is a species-specific method that doesn't harm other insects. If there are only a small number of wild mosquitoes around the coasts, this might reduce the numbers below that needed for a sustainable population.
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It's also good because it also means there's no species that naturally feed on mosquitoes in Iceland. So killing all the mosquitoes there will not harm the food chain.
Killing mosquitoes elsewhere is problematic because the food chain means they're eaten by other species like birds, bats, spiders, etc.
They're always in the last place you look (Score:1)
Personally, I wouldn't have gone looking for them. I guess someone had an itch of curiosity.
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Yeah, but you're not everyone.
I don't know how organised natural history fans are in Iceland, but I know who I'd phone if I found a winged insect that I couldn't positively identify myself (which is most of them) and which I thought might be an invasive species (which I wouldn't really consider, since we already have several tens of species of mosquitoes, and many other genera of biting and non-biting flies). Most counties have a network of "recorders" responsible for collating reports of novel organisms, o
he's not sure? (Score:1)
He said he's not sure climate change played a role in the discovery but "warming temperatures are likely to enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland, if they arrive."
Well, warming temperatures is one, probably the biggest, of the signs of climate change. So:
PICK A LANE!
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PICK A LANE!
I believe he did pick a lane. He chose to stay in his lane on the study of insects than get out of his lane and comment on global warming.
I'll see criticisms of Dr. David JC MacKay getting out of his lane on global warming, and this expert on insects might want to avoid similar criticisms. Even then the criticisms of Dr. David JC MacKay doesn't really follow. MacKay wrote his paper on sustainable energy with the assumption that global warming is a problem and CO2 emissions from human activity is the prim
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If the population survives until spring, that'll be a lot more concerning. So on, so forth.
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What is an expert on insects to offer in commentary on global warming?
seriously? he can talk about the numerous effects of global warming on the lives of insects. diet, habitats, lifecycles, pollination decline, population, location change, disease, pest increase
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Dude isn't debating the existence of climate change/warming, he's saying that though attribution is difficult (which is the correct answer), its ability to "enhance the potential for other mosquito species to establish in Iceland" is not controversial.
Climate Change will drive the expansion of territory of organisms into that which they previously found too costly to survive in.
Alaska has lots of mosquitos (Score:3)
And many parts of it are also significantly colder than Iceland.
I suspect that Iceland's former lack of mosquitos has to do with both cold AND isolation.
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Many things combine to gate the migration of a species.
The rather rapid warming of Iceland has no doubt contributed to theirs, as the travel-based break in their isolation is hardly new.
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And many parts of it are also significantly colder than Iceland.
The climate of Alaska is almost universally sub-arctic. The climate of Iceland is almost universally tundra. They are very different. There's far more to this than just temperature. Speaking of which, the daily means during the warm season in Alaska averaged over the country are less than 1degree different from Iceland. Mosquitoes are seasonal, Alaska has far colder winters, which brings the year around average down, but isn't appreciably different in the summer.
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FWIW, Iceland has recently had some volcanic activity which ought to have resulted in large areas with warmer than usual rock. I wouldn't be surprised if in some area ponds of water stay melted over the winter (at least at the bottom).
You've got climate, weather, and terrain...and really local micro-climate.
HAH! Serves you right. (Score:2)
That's for hogging the good cod, and for creating Hakarl.
Mosquito in Iceland (Score:2)
Are we sure none of the DeHavilland wooden wonders didn't fly there in WWII ?
They were used by Coastal Command
Isn't this a good thing? (Score:2)
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We are concerned with the stability of our ecosystems. The introduction of exotic species, which can become invasive, was never considered a good thing. In particular parasitic insects which are harmful to the local wildlife... Examples: 1) airport controls for food and live products which can transport pests; 2) exotic flowers from local shops come with a sticker saying purchaser takes responsibility for not releasing the plant into nature (I have seen that, I live in EU).
Re: Isn't this a good thing? (Score:2)
Are hu-mans the mother of all invasive species?
What cold winters? Iceland's not cold. (Score:2)
They cite "cold winters" as why mosquitos aren't found in Iceland, but... Iceland doesn't have cold winters. In Reykjavik, their lowest mean daily minimum temperature is -2 C in January. Here in Montreal, it's -14 C, so much colder, and there have always been mosquitos in Montreal.
I would imagine that Iceland's cold *summers* is probably more responsible. It never gets very warm, with a highest mean daily maximum of 15 C in July, versus Montreal at 27 C.
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Here in Montreal, it's -14 C, so much colder, and there have always been mosquitos in Montreal.
Alaska has [swat] entered the conversation [smack].