Mosquitoes Discovered in Iceland for 1st Time

AFP-Jiji

17:06 JST, October 29, 2025

REYKJAVIK (AFP-Jiji) — Mosquitoes have been discovered in Iceland in a first for the island nation, which has long been one of the world’s mosquito-free places, a researcher told AFP on Monday.

Three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes, two females and one male, were sighted around 30 kilometers north of the capital Reykjavik, according to Matthias Alfredsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland.

“They were all collected from wine ropes … aimed at attracting moths,” the researcher said in an email, referring to a method of adding sugar to heated wine and dipping ropes or strips of fabric into the solution, which are then hung outside to entice the sweet-toothed insects.