Welcome to hell, Icelanders!
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.
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?
There are biting midges, and I presume they're very annoying, but most don't bite and they're all different from mosquitoes.
Ah, yeah I saw a lot of insects that I presumed were mosquitoes... do they look similar?
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.
How is that pronounced???
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.
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.
Yes, I believe the thorn had been replaced with a y when typesetting was first getting started, for some reason
Go The Foss.
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.
Genetic engineer your way out. The studies all agree it's fine, gene drive the mosquitoes extinct.
Or Breed the ones that don't bite humans or whatever
Since we all know Global Warming is a hoax, obviously those mosquitoes were smuggled into Iceland by Antifa.
antifa also made lots of tiny jackets for the mosquitos so they could survive the cold
Great job, humans. You’ve ruined Iceland.
We’re not done yet, there’s still some icebergs that need to go!
Those mosquitos aren’t going to like it when it’s just sea water.
Only course of action is to burn it down. Fetch the flame throwers.
My Plague Inc run is finally going as planned.
Ugh, that sucks for those people. Mosquitoes truly are the spawn of Trump.
That's insulting to mosquitoes.
How'd they get there? Human activity or somehow carried by weather maybe?
Any number of places. It could have been a stowaway in luggage, imported livestock, etc.
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.
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.
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.
They probably flew.
Every day animals are adjusting their habits and habitats based on the changing environment.
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
Interesting.
Cold is going to be a commodity in the coming decades.
Alongside food, water amd shelter
followed by some cataclisms, then ice age.
don't quote me on that
Damn it! We only have a few places of refuge!
*had
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.
There is no global warming. They just have +3 ice armor.
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