this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2025
476 points (99.2% liked)

World News

50459 readers
2000 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 17 hours ago

I doubt it's the harsh weather that prevents mosquitos. They probably just never made it to the island before and now made it on a plane or boat finally.

In Canada you'll find hellish mosquitos up in the Arctic circle which has a much colder climates than Iceland I believe.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 74 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Since we all know Global Warming is a hoax, obviously those mosquitoes were smuggled into Iceland by Antifa.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

For some time the propaganda has been that global warming is real, but not caused my human activity. It's a natural and unavoidable cycle.

Asked a guy at work, "OK, but 10-years ago is was called fake, wasn't happening. What changed?"

Forget his answer, but remember him being taken aback for a minute.

[–] LadyButterfly@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep I'm British and I've lost count of how many times a denier has said "no cos we used to grow grapes in England"

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

What's that supposed to mean? That it used to be warmer? Get ready for the AMOC to shut down, you for sure won't be growing grapes.

Record snowfall for Florida in my town last winter. Direct result of global warming.

[–] affiliate@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

antifa also made lots of tiny jackets for the mosquitos so they could survive the cold

[–] kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 147 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Welcome to hell, Icelanders!

[–] semisimian@startrek.website 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Hell arrived a while ago and it is summer on Lake Myvatn, or Midge Lake. You can't breathe without inhaling insects, so you have to wear a mask just in case a cloud of those things happen your way.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I wish I'd known what that translated to before I went there.

At least they seemed to stay away from the thermal baths area.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, we went to Iceland ~3 years ago and we learned beforehand to bring a mosquito net for Lake Myvatn. So this headline confuses me. The article says mosquitoes were only discovered there this month, but some random blog knew about it years ago?

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are biting midges, and I presume they're very annoying, but most don't bite and they're all different from mosquitoes.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, yeah I saw a lot of insects that I presumed were mosquitoes... do they look similar?

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only annoying insects I've seen in Iceland, when visiting Goðafoss I think, seemed a good bit larger than mosquitoes. Not sure if those are midges or some other insect.

[–] Zidane@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)
[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

Go The Foss.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'm not a linguist nor am I Icelandic. However, when visiting I did notice that the language has this "Eth" (Ð ð) letter and [the "Thorn" Þ þ letter.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter%29).

My simple, English-based understanding is that they represent two variations of the English "th" sound. Eth is voiced, softer, and similar to the "th" in "the" or "father" and Thorn is unvoiced, harsher, and similar to the "th" sound in its name "thorn" or "thank". It's subtle and I never remember learning about the differences in my schooling.

I've also noticed there is a small "movement", here and a few other sites online, to try and bring one or both of these back, replacing "th" with one or both these characters in English posts and comments.

Edit: Pronouncing the actual name of the waterfall, the Wikipedia page has a playable pronunciation that sounds to me like "go the foss" which matches an English pronunciation of just replacing Eth with TH, but that's just an approximation.

[–] Zidane@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Neat! Thanks for sharing. I knew about the thorn and then saw on the wiki the "Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈkɔːðaˌfɔsːft]" and my brain kinda shut off lol.

Wasn't y also a th character back in "ye olde" times for example?
English is weird.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Yes, I believe the thorn had been replaced with a y when typesetting was first getting started, for some reason

[–] original_reader@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[–] redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Genetic engineer your way out. The studies all agree it's fine, gene drive the mosquitoes extinct.

[–] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Or Breed the ones that don't bite humans or whatever

[–] mech@feddit.org 32 points 1 day ago

My Plague Inc run is finally going as planned.

[–] fxleak@lemmings.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Interesting.

Cold is going to be a commodity in the coming decades.

[–] LadyButterfly@reddthat.com 6 points 1 day ago

Alongside food, water amd shelter

[–] fish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

followed by some cataclisms, then ice age.

don't quote me on that

[–] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't worry, if you're right you'll be dead. And if you're wrong you'll get to live. Truly a win win.

[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

There is a third option... the horror that will be visited on survivors

Always live and work near a city center so you get taken out quickly

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Great job, humans. You’ve ruined Iceland.

[–] SoloCritical@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We’re not done yet, there’s still some icebergs that need to go!

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Those mosquitos aren’t going to like it when it’s just sea water.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

This year.

Screw mosquitoes! They can't survive winter.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Only course of action is to burn it down. Fetch the flame throwers.

[–] reddifuge@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ugh, that sucks for those people. Mosquitoes truly are the spawn of Trump.

[–] stretch2m@infosec.pub 9 points 1 day ago

That's insulting to mosquitoes.

[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How'd they get there? Human activity or somehow carried by weather maybe?

[–] jcs@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any number of places. It could have been a stowaway in luggage, imported livestock, etc.

[–] brachypelmide@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, probably this. And the increase in temperature simply made the conditions bearable when they got outside.

Could they have also maybe just.. flown over there? Insect migrations like this can happen, but I don't think it's possible on such a scale, even for mosquitoes.

[–] bstix 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sand from Sahara in Africa is sometimes carried by wind and rains down in Scandinavia and even South America.

Fish eggs have landed in tree tops in the Amazon and what not.

I'm sure a mosquito or their eggs could ride the wind to Iceland as well.

[–] brachypelmide@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Ah, fair enough. To be fair a good couple of spider species were able to cross continents via ballooning, so now that I think about it, mosquitoes doing just as well isn't too far fetched.

[–] fxleak@lemmings.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They probably flew.

Every day animals are adjusting their habits and habitats based on the changing environment.

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Every day animals are adjusting their habits and habitats based on the changing environment.

...or going extinct, like a sizable number of species already had in the last few decades

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Damn it! We only have a few places of refuge!

[–] j_z@feddit.nu 5 points 1 day ago
[–] muhyb@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago

There is no global warming. They just have +3 ice armor.