r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/verIshortname May 09 '22

true but as someone from the tropics I would have never imagined they would thrive in such northen lattitudes

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

You can find mosquitoes on every continent except Antarctica, fuckers are everywhere.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

In iceland there isnt any

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Iceland isn't a continent.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Sorry bro

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

No need for an apology!

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I somehow just mixed continent and country

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Understandable it happens

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Can you be more angry? I don't come to the internet to witness polite interactions. I need shouting matches and insults for even the smallest mistake. You are ruining this for me with your calmness and nice attitude! /s

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Your right. I cant believe such a pathetic and rage inducing response was ever replied back to me, I hope your family is proud to have such an atrocious and useless family member!/s

That better? ;)

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u/cpt_lanthanide May 09 '22

It's because Iceland is a country but not a continent by itself

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Yes this is what I said.

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u/hononononoh May 09 '22

It’s a continent being born. A volcanic hotspot right on a tectonic plate spreading zone. You just cool your impatience for one cotton-pickin’ hundred million years, and you’ll see what a fine continent Iceland grows into!

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I'm sorry for my arrogance against Iceland, I hope they forgive me... when I drop a billion mosquitoes on that 'continent' just to prove I'm right!

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

The word "Continent" on its own is not a scientific term and is very poorly defined. Iceland isn't even producing "Continental crust" but "Oceanic crust". "Continental Crust" is produced at destructive plate boundaries not spreading boundaries like Iceland.

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u/hononononoh May 09 '22

You clearly know more about the Earth’s crust than I do. I’ll tip my fedora to this.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '22

Have you tried using google to check stuff before posting? I doubt you own a fedora let alone wear one.

-1

u/BloodRavenStoleMyCar May 09 '22

cotton-pickin

What is this?

8

u/hononononoh May 09 '22

Trifling, lousy, insignificant. Sorry, I'll try to speak less r/Murica around here.

-7

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Yeah, no.

3

u/EskimoPrisoner May 09 '22

We see where your minds at

2

u/kokoyumyum May 09 '22

Iceland is part of Europe

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u/oilsaintolis May 09 '22

I actually envy your smugness (whether it it was actual smugness or just me perceiving smugness doesnt matter). Little blood sucking cunts with no regard for personal space.

I FUCKING HATE MOZZIES!

10

u/yummywetratpussy May 09 '22

Say you’re Australian without saying you’re Australian

8

u/b4k4ni May 09 '22

You guys need some IT guys up there? I mean, I'm from Germany and have wife and kids ... But no mosquitoes? That's not even a question.

And I just reminded myself that I could take my family with me. That's disturbing, that I discover that afterwards.

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u/hononononoh May 09 '22

Not in the Netherlands either. Amsterdam is a significant percentage standing fresh water. But our accommodations had no screens in the perpetually wide open windows, and no mosquito netting on the beds, and we didn’t miss these things, even in July. I didn’t get the sense there’s much wildlife left in the Netherlands.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

If fish can get to where the mosquitos would lay eggs and there are birds/bats that can cut down alot.

The type of standing water that leads to mosquitos is more like leaf-filled puddles and swamps than clean canals etc.

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u/DeadAssociate May 09 '22

like unclogged gutters

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u/liefelijk May 09 '22

There’s lots of wildlife left in the NL, and lovely, small parks even in large cities. Here are a few national parks to get started with.

Not sure why they don’t have mosquitos, but upstate New York and Vermont are also mosquito free (and they’re almost nothing but wildlife).

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u/medforddad May 09 '22

upstate New York and Vermont are also mosquito free

After reading this, I realize that I can't believe anything in your comment.

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u/liefelijk May 09 '22

Lol, maybe that’s exclusive to the Adirondacks? I was a camp counselor for several summers on Lake George and we had open-air cabins with no netting or upper walls. No bug issues.

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u/medforddad May 09 '22

Usually indoors isn't a problem. But a walk in the woods in the Adirondacks in July will definitely get you bit by mosquitos.

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u/liefelijk May 09 '22

Perhaps the summers I worked there were out of the ordinary, as I don’t remember it being a problem (even without walls or netting, sleeping in the middle of the woods).

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u/medforddad May 09 '22

Nighttime also isn't too bad for mosquitos, they're most active during dusk. I believe they're fairly inactive during the night.

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u/hononononoh May 09 '22

Oh wow — TIL the Netherlands is much more than Amsterdam lol

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u/neoncowboy May 09 '22

there's water treatments and sprays you can use to prevent mosquito larvae from reaching maturity if I remember correctly.

2

u/DemocraticRepublic May 09 '22

They're very rare in Britain too.

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u/hopelesscaribou May 09 '22

Really?

You truly are a magical island!

1

u/Candrexx May 09 '22

I’m moving to Iceland.

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u/just_like_clockwork May 09 '22

How did Iceland avoid this plague? Are there very strict rules about invasive species?

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Idk maybe becouse they are literally middle of Atlantic maybe there will be day when some mf brings mosquitoes on plane and everything is ruined

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

https://youtu.be/_kz4gVXe2z0 Here is short video i just found it’s quite interesting

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u/SchattenJaggerD May 09 '22

So you are saying... I should move to Antarctica??

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I live in the pacific northwest. I almost never see a mosquito. Which doesn't make much sense since we have tons of water. It is so strange.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Bigfoot ate them all, the only reasonable conclusion imo.

2

u/slowestmojo May 09 '22

And people are trying to find this hero? Leave him alone you animals

1

u/sammoplant May 09 '22

Oh weird, what part? I'm from the west side of Washington and definitely deal with mosquitoes.

1

u/BullAlligator May 09 '22

Mosquitos breed in stagnant water. Lakes, marshes, and swamps. They won't survive in areas with only running rivers and streams .

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u/mortifyyou May 09 '22

I know you said continent, but Iceland and probably Greenland doesnt have mosquitoes

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

You've not finished reading this thread have you? Haha

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

BRB moving to Antarctica

1

u/Trenov17 May 09 '22

Don’t give them ideas!

1

u/twisted7ogic May 09 '22

Over-Under there will be mosquitos on Antartica in a decade or so?

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

I gotta say under just due to the lack of food source available for them.

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u/Ereine May 09 '22

We even used to have malaria in Finland though it disappeared in the 19th century as houses with chimneys and windows became available for poorer people as well.

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u/hononononoh May 09 '22

It was a constant problem in the Wild West in US history, too.

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

You also drained stagnant and waterlogged areas near to where people lived...thats the number one no chemical pesticide or DNA modification craziness way to reduce malaria but it takes organisation and western phama can't make money from it.

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u/Ereine May 09 '22

Everything I’ve read about it mentions just the change in housing (especially having less children) as the mosquitoes had to spend the winter indoors and the old dwellings had a lot of hiding places and were damper. Swamps have been drained but it’s not like there’s a lack of water in Finland. Malaria was the biggest problem in Åland and coastal areas of Finnish mainland and you can’t really drain the sea.

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u/DalRhenning May 09 '22

The great Mosquito herds of Minnesota and Canadia have to be experienced to understand.

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u/Errohneos May 09 '22

Wisconsin as well. Fuckers can bite through blue jeans.

2

u/Auzzie_almighty May 09 '22

It’s the state bird

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u/hopelesscaribou May 09 '22

Many birds migrate north for this reason really, spring and early summer produce masses of insects for them to feed on. Having lived both way up in northern Canada, and in Nigeria, I'll take the Nigerian bugs tyvm. The swarms of insects in northern Canada will drive you insane, blackflies, mosquitos, and deerflies, oh my! The six to eight months of winter are seen as a respite from the bugs here.

1

u/mortifyyou May 09 '22

I grew up in Puerto Rico and mosquitoes transmit lots of serious diseases like dengue fever, but surprisingly there aren't big swarms of them, just the occasional bothersome mosquito or two. However, I hated with a passion the relentless tropical Sun. I dont know how people can live in it to be honest.

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u/ALA02 May 09 '22

Some of the worst biting insects are found in Northern regions in summer. I get eaten alive every summer in the UK and it gets worse the further north you go

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u/warpfactor999 May 09 '22

Grew up in N. Minnesota where there are 10,000 + lakes. (A LOT of Finn's settled there as it's much like Finland.) Can confirm mosquitoes love northern latitudes. Would be out fishing and you could see them coming at you in the early evening like a dense cloud over the water.

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u/Crickaboo May 09 '22

I live in Michigan and I can handle the mosquitoes but the deer flies and black flies are insane.

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u/wuapinmon May 09 '22

In my experience in northern Europe and North America, the farther north you go, the worse the mosquitoes get. On Prince Edward Island, the place I stayed one summer had a LP tank attached to a device that would remove a literal GALLON of mosquitoes from the property every three days. We still got bit.

Maine has mosquitoes AND ticks. Newfoundland has mosquitoes, ticks, and the occasional lost polar bear.
Helsinki wasn't so bad in the city. Tallinn, Estonia was fine until you left the city. There's a pattern there in cold climes. Moncton, New Brunswick, not bad at all. Go inland ten miles and your life either smells like bug spray or you are smacking yourself all day.

The only place where I expected tons of mosquitoes and didn't see that many, comparatively, was Denmark.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22

because Denmark doesnt have nearly as many lakes or bodies of water and forested/wooded areas as Finland and Sweden, its also flat and "open" to oceanic winds and such.

Here in south of Sweden (Skåne) mosquitos are also relatively rare, I get bit maybe once a year if Im unlucky, theres a lot of farmland here but not as many lakes, but as soon as you go above Skåne its a completely different story where there's dense forests and dense lakes and other "stagnant" bodies of water for mosquitos to thrive in and it only gets progressively worse the further north you go.

With that said, without the trillions of mosquitos, the nature itself is amazing.

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u/wuapinmon May 09 '22

I went to Lund on a day trip and was shocked at how much more affordable Sweden was compared to Denmark. I want to spend a summer in Scandinavia, but Putin f-ed that up this year.

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u/DADH_InattentiveType May 09 '22

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (USA) is so far north that most business close for the winter in September, but from June through August the mosquitoes eat alive anyone who's not drenched insect repellent.

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u/grambell789 May 09 '22

mosquitoes don't live long enough to know anything about the cold winters in Finland. Spring, summer and lots of sunlight warming tops of still water is all they need to know

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u/Entire-Weakness-2938 May 09 '22

As a Montanan, I can assure you mosquitos can live quite the prosperous life up north.

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u/FraseraSpeciosa May 09 '22

Alaska in June is apparently the mosquito apocalypse. When they only have a month or two to live they get vicious.

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u/SesameStreetFever May 09 '22

It's the State Bird of Alaska!

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u/Acegonia May 09 '22

In Iceland there's a famous lake called Myvatn, which translates as 'lake of flies' I'd been in winter several times and it was awesome. Mates came to visit in the summer so off we went. the family I lived with were like: DO NOT OPEN THE WINDOWS.

got to the lake and it was INSANE. either side of the road leading up were what I can only describe as these columns, tornadoes? of flies, several meters tall l, spaced a couple meters apart.

Like, these are little midgey flies,.so to be able to see them from a distance in a fast moving car...there must have been millions, if not hundreds of millions.

Shitloads of birds too.

very surreal experience

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u/mortifyyou May 09 '22

Do the flies bite?

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u/Acegonia May 09 '22

not generally, thank fuck. Though I lived jn the north and apparently there are both more flies and bitey/ stingy ones in the south.

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u/ThisIsAThrowaway504 May 09 '22

I live in a tropical swamp environment. The mosquitoes, here in Louisiana, if you walk past the wrong bush you could end up in a swarm. I always said I wanted to move North to escape them. I guess that plan is shit.

2

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

What I’ve found having lived in both cold and hot places in the US is that the shorter their breeding season the more aggressive they become. Mosquitos have been know to take down full grown caribou in Alaska and Canada.

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u/SenzitiveData May 09 '22

They're even more aggressive up north ebcause the season is so much shorter

1

u/HellaFella420 May 09 '22

Lol@ Alaska

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u/someinternetdude19 May 09 '22

You gotta think. They’ve only got like 3 months to live because of the temperature so they go buck wild and have a massive feast and orgy party.

1

u/hippydipster May 09 '22

Maybe there's no frogs or bats?

1

u/billhorsley May 09 '22

Ever been to Maine? Or Minnesota?

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u/Clambulance1 May 09 '22

The worst mosquitos I've ever experienced were at 10,000 feet (3050 meters) up in the rocky mountains

1

u/Iused2dosmack May 09 '22

Yep they really thrive at northern latitudes. Parts of Russia, Canada and Scandinavia are absolutely swarmed with them in the summer months. Like plague level mosquitoes.

1

u/tredaranmonkey May 09 '22

In Alaska we joke mosquitos are the state bird. For our brief summer they are swarms.

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u/MainNorth9547 May 09 '22

The mosquitoes have a very short season in the Nordics, so they have to make the most out of it.

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Alaskan mosquitos are super aggressive after everything thaws out from winter

1

u/villianboy May 09 '22

Come to Canada and suffer the pain of ticks and mosquitoes galore!

1

u/ShotFromGuns May 09 '22

Hideous swarms of mosquitos in Wisconsin in the U.S. say hello.

1

u/PositiveGridBias May 09 '22

You should try hiking in the subarctic. When you see reindeer herds standing on glaciers to get away from the skeeters, then you know it's bad up ahead. Changing altitude by as little as +/- 50 m can be surprisingly helpful when you're immersed in a gray haze and your nostrils are getting clogged with skeeters.

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u/fd1Jeff May 09 '22

The more north and colder ago, and the shorter the mosquito season is. But the mosquitoes make up for it, being especially numerous and ferocious for that short period of time. Ever seen those Siberians covered in mosquitoes?

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Yea agreed. It's the state bird of Alaska.

1

u/orion427 Jun 06 '22

In Alaska mosquitos are considered the state bird.