Kjós, Iceland—Residents here are buzzing after the confirmation of the country’s first wild mosquitoes last week, with video game sales for Plague Inc. skyrocketing 340% nationwide as locals apparently brace for an insect apocalypse.
The trio of banded mosquitoes, species Culiseta annulata, was spotted and captured by 52-year-old sheep farmer Björn Hjaltason while he was mending fences in a marshy field. “I thought it was a tiny Viking longship at first—those suckers are huge, like they’re ready to raid my blood supply,” Hjaltason quipped to reporters, swatting at imaginary foes. The Icelandic Institute of Natural History verified the find, noting the pests likely hitched a ride on imported hay bales, but officials downplayed any real threat since these mosquitoes aren’t disease carriers. Yet, in Reykjavik’s gaming stores, shelves emptied faster than a fjord at low tide, with one 28-year-old barista, Einar Thorvaldsson, confessing, “If zombies and plagues are in video games, why not prep for buggy Armageddon? I evolved my mosquito pathogen to level 10 last night—now I’m unstoppable.”
The surge ties into Iceland’s long-cherished mosquito-free status, shattered amid warming winters blamed on climate change, which experts say could invite more creepy crawlies via global trade routes. Plague Inc., the 2012 mobile hit where players unleash virtual pandemics, has become an unlikely survival tool, with developer Ndemic Creations reporting a flood of Icelandic downloads. “We’re flattered, but please don’t actually release plagues,” joked company founder James Vaughan in a statement, adding that tutorial views on mosquito strategies jumped 500%. Social media is abuzz with memes of puffins wielding bug spray, turning what could have been a minor ecological footnote into a national punchline.
Looking ahead, entomologists predict monitoring stations will pop up like unwanted guests at a hot spring, while game sales might sustain the spike if more mosquitoes follow suit. Iceland’s government has vowed to investigate import controls, but with players now “practicing” pest control digitally, the real invasion might just get crowdsourced into submission—or at least into a high-score leaderboard.