Mosquito free Antarctica

Mosquitoes have be deviled humans for centuries, spreading disease and death to millions. Today, the latest plague they bring is the Zika virus.

Mosquitoes are perhaps the most dangerous animals in the world.   It threatens half of the world's population and causes billions of dollars in lost productivity annually. Other mosquito-borne diseases include dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. There are more than 2,500 species of mosquito, and mosquitoes are found in every region of the world except Antarctica.    

They bite and buzz and suck your blood. If you hate them, you can move indoors for a temporary escape, but if you really hate mosquitoes, you'll have to move — and we mean really far away.

There are only two places in the world that are completely and utterly mosquito-free: Antarctica and Iceland.

The conditions in Antarctica are just too harsh for the annoying pests to survive, says David Denlinger, distinguished university professor in entomology, evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University.

Denlinger has traveled to Antarctica several times to study Belgica antarctica, a biting midge that is the only insect native to the continent.

`They're closely related to mosquitoes. In fact, they look like little wingless mosquitoes. But they don’t bite or do anything like that,` says Denlinger.

`It's a hardly little creature that lives encased in ice most of the year ... They have some pretty fancy mechanisms to survive the low temperatures.`

Mosquitoes don't have those fancy mechanisms, so they can't survive the extreme temperatures.

Unfortunately, no one really lives in Antarctica, considered on average the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth. Instead of permanent residents, there are thousands of people who spend a few weeks or months atresearch stations studying everything from the weather to the midges.

Iceland is very nice

There are glaciers, and also waterfalls. But  no mosquitoes ... yet in Iceland

If you'd like to go somewhere a little more people-friendly, consider Iceland. You may run into some biting midges there, but no mosquitoes.

You may not want to consider it a long-term plan, however. Some scientists and entomologists are surprised mosquitoes have not taken up residence there.

`It is very strange. People have mentioned various possible explanations, for example that Iceland has an oceanic climate and that they don’t thrive in it, but that’s nonsense,` entomologist Erling Olafsson commented to ruv.is, a site managed by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. Olafsson said it's likely a chemical composition of water and ground that keeps the bugs at bay. Olafsson guesses that mosquitoes could be carried to the country with airplanes or the wind.