Iceland Announces an Unfortunate First: Mosquitoes (Amelia Nierenberg, NY Times, October 22, 2025)

To St. Johns County Voters: Please save the day: November 3, 2026 is the election for Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County, which works to protect public health from deadly mosquito-born diseases, which kill one million people annually.  Non-partisan independent taxing district. I am a candidate and would be honored to have your vote.  

Iceland Announces an Unfortunate First: Mosquitoes

Iceland was one of the only mosquito-free places in the world, at least according to its records. Not anymore.

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A common house mosquito (culex pipiens), a different type from the ones found in Iceland last week.Credit...Martin Lelievre/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Amelia Nierenberg

Oct. 22, 2025

Iceland lost the distinction this month of being one of the last places in the world without a confirmed sighting of wild mosquitoes. And their presence was discovered only because of a rope in a garden doused in sugary red wine.

A bug enthusiast named Bjorn Hjaltason has spent years attracting insects to his property using a method known as “wine roping,” in which fabric dipped in sugared wine is used as a lure. Usually, the wine draws moths, according to Matthias S. Alfredsson, an entomologist at the Natural Science Institute of Iceland who occasionally collaborates with Mr. Hjaltason on projects.

But last Thursday, Mr. Hjaltason noticed an unusual bug, said Mr. Alfredsson. Could it be a mosquito? He sent a photo to Mr. Alfredsson, who went to look in person. (Mr. Hjaltason did not respond to requests for comment.)

Soon, Mr. Alfredsson confirmed Mr. Hjaltason’s hunch:

Three mosquitoes — two females and a male — were eventually discovered at the property.

“This is the first time” that mosquitoes have been found in the wild of Iceland, Mr. Alfredsson wrote in an email. The Natural Science Institute announced the discovery in a statement on Tuesday.

The question for Icelandic scientists is whether they will be short-lived tourists or the beginning of a new, native population. But either way, mosquito experts say the discovery is a sign of how rapid climate change and globalization are changing Iceland.

“We should not be surprised that we see mosquitoes popping up in very strange localities,” said Bart Knols, a Dutch mosquito expert and a founder of MalariaWorld, which gathers and shares malaria research.

Iceland has seen a spike in insect life over the past four decades or so, said Gisli Mar Gislason, a professor emeritus at the University of Iceland who studied aquatic insects and is writing a book on Icelandic insect identification with Mr. Alfredsson, Mr. Hjaltason and another entomologist.

Recently, that growth has coincided with the skyrocketing number of international travelers visiting the geographically isolated nation. The torrent of planes, cruise ships and cargo boats gives insects more chances to hitch a ride, Dr. Gislason said.

At the same time, climate change has transformed the country. One Icelandic glacier, Okjokull, has completely melted away while some native plants are at risk of extinction as temperatures rise and invasive species arrive.

“Insect numbers increase with increasing heat,” said Dr. Gislason, who until now had the honor of having caught the only mosquito in Iceland. (In the 1980s, at the main airport, he trapped one flying in a plane that had just arrived from Greenland.)

“With increasing temperatures,” he continued, “There are more opportunities for species from warmer areas to colonize Iceland.”

Enter the mosquitoes. Given that these three were found near Reykjavik, the capital, and an international harbor, they most likely came from abroad, experts said.

“With only three specimens found,” Dr. Gislason said, “I would guess it’s a very recent arrival.”

But with the climate warming, it is plausible they could survive in Iceland, according to Dr. Knols. “We should not be surprised if — maybe just for a short period — that mosquitoes manage to establish themselves and produce the next generation,” he added.

Dr. Gislason, who reviewed photos of the three specimens, said a mosquito population could spread quickly, pointing to no-see-ums (Ceratopogonidae). Those bugs, which also cause itchy bites, appeared only a decade earlier, he said. Now, 

If this population establishes itself, as I presume it will, it may spread as fast as the no-see-ums,” he said.

These specific mosquitoes could also be able to endure the harsh Icelandic climate. Mr. Alfredsson identified them as Culiseta annulata, a variety of mosquito that can survive long periods of freezing temperatures and already lives in the Nordic region, the Natural Science Institute said in a statement.

While it is impossible to know if these are truly Iceland’s first mosquitoes, the country has extensive insect monitoring, meaning a previous population would have most likely been detected, Mr. Alfredsson said. If there were a few mosquitoes in the past, he added, they probably died out without establishing a foothold.

It is not yet clear whether this triad is a fluke or a sign of a new reality; Mr. Alfredsson said more monitoring would be needed to see if they have “truly become established in Iceland.”

For now, the three are sticking around. Currently, Mr. Alfredsson wrote, all three “are stored in my freezer.”

Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.

VOTE FOR ED SLAVIN, REJECT TWO FAKE POLITICAL PARTY "VOTER GUIDES" FOR ANASTASIA MOSQUITO CONTROL DISTRICT OF ST. JOHNS COUNTY

I would be honored to have your vote for Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, seat 2.

Somone whom I have never met, LUCY VITI, a cheap shot GANNETT reporter/distorter opined earlier this year that I am "obsessed with mosquito control."

Why am I interested in mosquito control?

o We can help save many lives caused by mosquito-borne diseases.

o We can fight corruption, too.

o We can set an example for larger government agencies -- County, cities, Water Management Districts and State of Florida.

My father was bitten by a malarial mosquito in Sicily as an 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper in 1943.

One million American soldiers, Marines, airmen and Coast Guardsmen contracted malaria in WWII.

Mosquito-borne diseases kill some 900,000 people in the world each year.

My family was affected by one of those diseases. My mother told me when I was a little boy that the chances of my being born were less than one in 100,000.

My parents believed in America.  So do I.  Patience is a virtue.

Guided by their Roman Catholic faith my parents prayed to Saint Jude, the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes that they could conceive a child.  

I was the answer to their prayers.  

It took my working class parents twelve years before the birth of their only child, on the first day of Spring in 1957.

I did not talk until I was three.  

My Mother recalled that when I finally spoke cognizable words, it was a complete, emphatic grammatical English sentence.   

It was an affirmative command. If you don't already know, I will tell you when you're older.

In 2006, my friend Robin Nadeau, the lovely late League of Women Voters leader called asked me to help her stop our Mosquito Control District's aerial program and to stop a helicopter they planned to buy for $1.8 million.  I told her I didn't think we could stop the aerial program, but that I knew we could stop the contract violation of public policy. (Restatement of Contracts, 2d, section 178).

We were a threat to the corrupt Establishment.  The Mosquito Control Board Chair, spouse of a former County Attorney, actually called the Sheriff, who later wrote that his staff spent 300 hours helping Mosquito Control to pick a helicopter.

We, the People won.  It took us ten months, but Robin Nadeau and Ann Palmquist, Diane Mills, former Army Captain Don Girvan, AMCD Commissioner Jeanne Jackson Moeller and AMCD Commissioner John Sundeman, C.P.A. and I won. 

The Mosquito Control District voted unanimously, 5-0, and cancelled an illegal, wasteful, no-bid contract for a luxury Bell Jet Helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter. There was no pilot, no hangar, no tanks, no plan and no clue -- just overbearing desire to spend money.  

Always remember, "it's our money."

In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower told the American people, "I will go to Korea!"

In General Eisenhower's spirit, to the people of St. Johns County, "I will go to meetings!"

Not every former Anastasia Mosquito Control Commissioner bothered to do so, including one who missed some 37 meetings.  While the AMCD Board asked that Governor DeSantis investigate and consider her unexcused absences to suspend or remove her pursuant to Florida Constitution, Article IV, section 7.

No response from the Boy Governor, our former Congressman, RONALD DION DeSANTIS.

Wonder why?  Often-AWOL CATHERINE BRANDHORST,  the Commissioner in question, conveniently changed her voter registration from Democratic to Republican.

 Fast forward to 2026.

Our misguided Republican friends and our misguided Democratic friends in St. Johns County have issued fake, unreasoned, "voter guides."  I am not among those they recommend.

The 2026 Republican "voter guide" endorses controversial former Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County one CATHERINE BRANDHORST, the former Commissioner who missinged some 37 monthly meetings.

The Democratic "voter guide" supported me in 2024 and I received some 55,640 votes.

In 2026, Democrats say they failed to consider me because someone told them I was no longer a Democrat.   I sent them a color copy of my voter registration.  They did not respond.  Wonder why?  

Corruption is wrong.  Fake Voter Guides are wrong.  Wasting money on no-bid contracts is wrong.

Vote for me and I will be your watchdog.

Not a lapdog. 

Your watchdog.

It's our country and our County. It's not about donkeys and elephants. It's about right and wrong. 

What do y'all reckon?

Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island. (Joseph Goldstein, NY Times, September 25, 2025)

The next global pandemic could be spread by one or more mosquito-born diseases. My late Father contracted malaria in Sicily in 1943, where he fought Nazis with the 82nd ABN DIVN: Malaria changed his life, my Mother;s life and my life.  I'm lucky to be alive.  My Mother and Father prayed for twelve (120 years to Saint Jude due to their difficulties in conceiving a child, likely the result of malaria on my Father.  From The New York Times:

From The New York Times:

Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island

Chikungunya, which is endemic in parts of South America, Africa and Asia, may be the cause of a woman’s illness.

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Mosquitoes spread the disease called chikungunya, which can cause debilitating joint pain.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

By Joseph Goldstein

Sept. 25, 2025

Health officials said they were investigating whether the debilitating mosquito-borne virus chikungunya was circulating in New York after a woman tested positive on Long Island in a preliminary screening.

Although the virus has exacted a steep toll across parts of South America, Africa and Asia during the past 20 years, the United States has seen scant local transmission. The last time the disease was known to have been transmitted locally in the United States was about a decade ago, when fewer than 15 cases were detected in Florida and Texas.

But a 60-year-old woman in the Town of Hempstead, a hamlet in central Nassau County that is about 20 miles east of Manhattan, said she had tested positive for the virus in a preliminary screening test this month. Her blood samples have been sent to the state Health Department’s public health laboratory in Albany to confirm a diagnosis, a Nassau County official said.

“The New York State Department of Health is investigating a possible locally acquired case of chikungunya virus,” a department spokeswoman, Danielle De Souza, said in a statement. “No locally acquired cases have ever been reported in New York State, and the risk to the public remains very low.”

In an interview, the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive health matter, said she had not traveled anywhere recently and had been shocked when she saw the test results. She said she wanted to share her experience out of concern that the virus was circulating undetected and that others might be falling ill, too. She worried that doctors were not even considering chikungunya as a possible diagnosis.

She said that she fell ill a month ago, on Aug. 21, and was stricken with severe joint pain, the classic symptom of chikungunya. Pain racked her feet, ankles, knees, wrists, hands and shoulders, especially her right shoulder. It felt like it was on fire, almost as though it were being pulled apart, she said.

Chikungunya is known for causing debilitating joint pain, which can clear up quickly or linger for months or even years, contributing to a surge in new disabilities in countries that see outbreaks.

If the woman is confirmed to have chikungunya, it would signify the arrival of a new public health threat from arthropods in the New York region. Ticks already present a serious health peril on Long Island, where their bites sicken thousands of people each year. Suffolk County, which includes the eastern two-thirds of the island, has more Lyme disease cases some years than any other county in the United States.

Long Island has also been a hot spot for alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy linked to tick bites, including those from the lone star tick. That type of tick arrived on Long Island about 50 years agoand is the dominant tick in parts of Suffolk County. More than 3,700 cases of alpha-gal syndrome were detected in the county between 2017 and 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chikungunya has surged globally as climate change expands the range of the mosquitoes that carry it. China has faced a major outbreak this year, and the disease has been circulating in France and Italy, too. It is now endemic across much of the Caribbean and South and Central America.

The disease was first identified in Tanzania in the early 1950s. Its name comes from the Kimakonde language spoken there and means “that which bends up.” The virus would periodically cause waves of illness. India experienced a massive outbreak between 2005 and 2007.

The disease established itself in the Western Hemisphere starting in late 2013, when it was detected on St. Martin. It tore though the Caribbean, sickening hundreds of thousands of people in that first year alone. New Yorkers returning from trips sometimes brought the virus back home with them, but there were few signs of any local transmission.

New York was once viewed as relatively insulated from chikungunya, partly because the mosquito that seemed to be the main vector, the Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquito, is not naturally found there. Increasingly, another mosquito, Aedes albopictus, commonly known as the Asian tiger mosquito, is driving chikungunya outbreaks. That mosquito is a relative newcomer to the United States, but its range now extends to parts of New York.

The Nassau County woman said that her recent illness caused joint pain in her shoulder so severe that she struggled to sleep or do much of anything at all. Though the fiery pain has abated somewhat, she still has difficulty walking because of pain in the ball of her foot.

Dr. Bruce Farber, an infectious disease expert at Northwell Health, the state’s largest hospital system, said that if chikungunya had arrived in New York, an infected mosquito might have hitched a ride on a plane.

“Mosquitoes are sometimes carried back in luggage or in airplanes,” he said.

“That’s the most likely way,” he said, noting that malaria sometimes spreads in a limited fashion through the same means, a phenomenon called “airport malaria.”

Joseph Goldstein covers health care in New York for The Times, following years of criminal justice and police reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 26, 2025, Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Mosquito-Borne Illness Rarely Seen in the U.S. Is Suspected on Long Island. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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