In NPR’s article, “Mosquitoes appear in Iceland for the first time, as climate warms,” reporter Joe Hernandez claims that climate change is bringing mosquitoes to Iceland for the first time in recorded history. [emphasis, links added]
Hernandez describes how three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes were discovered near Reykjavík, suggesting that global warming is making Iceland less frigid and thus newly hospitable to these insects.
This is false.
Mosquitoes don’t naturally occur in Iceland, and the ones that were recently found there were transported via global shipping. So, trade, not climate change, is responsible for Iceland’s recently arrived mosquitoes.
The article quotes Iceland’s Natural Science Institute as saying the mosquitoes “appeared to be able to withstand Iceland’s climate” and ties the discovery to a “warming Arctic” that is allegedly accelerating faster than the rest of the globe.
NPR even frames the event as another signal of humanity’s impact on the planet, warning that “Antarctica is now the only place in the world believed to have no mosquitoes.”
This narrative, however, collapses under scrutiny. Mosquitoes in Iceland are not a sign of climate change—they are a result of travel and trade.
The author admits that “the mosquitoes likely arrived by freight,” noting that there have been previous reports of mosquitoes found in airplanes landing in Iceland. In other words, this is not evolution or migration; it’s importation.
Iceland did not suddenly generate mosquitoes out of thin air; it received them via human transportation, just as other invasive species move around the globe.
Nor have recent temperatures been unusual. Iceland has experienced substantial temperature swings over the decades and centuries.
Iceland has warmed since the 1990s, following an extended cooling period that was preceded by another period of warming. Recent temperatures are just now recovering to those experienced in the 1930s.
Mosquitos weren’t discovered during the 1930s and 1940s warm period. So, why now? The answer is the significant increase in global travel and trade since World War II.
As Climate at a Glance: Malaria and Mosquito-Borne Diseases explains, mosquitoes do not require tropical conditions to reproduce. Alaska—known for its short summers and long, frigid winters—has had enormous mosquito swarms for centuries.
The state’s tourism bureau even jokes that the mosquito is “Alaska’s unofficial state bird.” Both Alaska and Iceland sit at similar latitudes and experience comparable summer daylight and temperature ranges.
Clearly, mosquitoes can survive in cold climates when certain environmental niches exist, as demonstrated by the Arctic mosquito (Aedes nigripes), which thrives in tundra pools during the brief northern summer.
In fact, global malaria and mosquito-borne disease rates have declined over recent decades, even as the planet has warmed.
The connection between temperature and mosquito proliferation is vastly overstated. Public health, sanitation, travel, and trade play far greater roles in spreading mosquitoes than climate.
The truth is, cold alone does not prevent mosquitoes from existing. Many species of mosquitoes have evolved to survive in subzero temperatures by overwintering in soil, leaf litter, or sheltered areas like basements and barns—the same places Iceland’s Culiseta annulata specimens were reportedly found.
As the Natural Science Institute notes, this species already lives across Europe and the Nordic countries, often taking shelter “in outbuildings and basements” during winter.
It is also important to note Iceland’s geographic isolation. The island sits in the middle of the North Atlantic, hundreds of miles from any continental landmass, which is one reason why, despite the climatic conditions being hospitable for mosquitoes, they are not naturally found there.
For mosquitoes to establish a population there, they would need continuous influxes of breeding pairs and suitable habitats for larvae—exceedingly rare conditions given Iceland’s volcanic terrain, wind, and lack of stagnant freshwater ponds.
Further, the Natural Science Institute acknowledged in the article that these mosquitoes are “large species present in Europe” and that their presence in Iceland is new, not natural.
The most plausible explanation is that these mosquitoes arrived as accidental stowaways on cargo, likely from the United Kingdom or mainland Europe, and managed to persist through the mild early autumn.
This is not evidence of a changing global climate—it’s evidence of an increasingly connected world. It is also not evidence that they or subsequent generations of mosquitoes will survive or thrive there. That will depend on Iceland’s management of warm stagnant pools and pest control measures.
NPR’s framing ignores well-documented entomological research showing that mosquitoes can adapt to and survive in a wide range of climates.
A 2022 USGS study titled “Spatial and temporal patterns in Arctic mosquito abundance” documents routine mosquito populations above the Arctic Circle, again supporting the notion that mosquitoes survive in cold climates.
Another peer-reviewed article, “Spatial heterogeneity in the abundance and fecundity of Arctic mosquitoes,” documents mosquito populations above the Arctic Circle and their responses to environmental change.
In short, NPR’s article takes a mundane occurrence—a few stowaway insects—and turns it into a symbolic tale of how climate change is causing previously unexperienced deleterious changes.
While NPR blames global warming for newly arrived mosquitoes in Iceland, the evidence points squarely to increased global shipping, not melting glaciers.
By ignoring centuries of mosquito history in high-latitude regions like Alaska and northern Canada, and by failing to mention the obvious transport vector, NPR misleads readers into thinking that climate change is conjuring new species from thin air.
NPR’s narrative is as false as the claims made by power-hungry progressive politicians that climate change is an existential threat to humanity.
Top image by Andreas from Pixabay
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