Iceland’s New Bloodsuckers Are a Warning to Us All

If you want to live somewhere without mosquitoes, you’re running out of options. One of the world’s last remaining mosquito-free zones has been infiltrated by the bloodsuckers. Three specimens of Culiseta annulata were found in the southwest of Iceland, leaving Antarctica as the only remaining refuge from the biters.

Scientists will be monitoring the situation to see whether the trio are a fluke or the start of an established breeding population. Culiseta annulata is a species already well adapted to colder temperatures – we have them here in the UK – so it’s plausible that it could easily gain a foothold in the remote island nation.