Perke***n hyttyset!

[Rekkari]

Here's something that's been bugging me lately (pun intended):

I've never known any other word but hyttynen for the pesky, biting, blood-sucking, disease carrying insect (i.e., mosquito) which is as much a part of the Finnish summer as mansikka, kesämökki, and keskiyön aurinko. The other day, however, I came across itikka and found the following translations:

Wiktionary - mosquito (colloquial) hyttynen, moskiitto and sääski are listed as synonyms
Google Translate - bug
Glosbe - mosquito
EUdict - insect
Urbaani Sanakirja - Hyttynen, tai muu vastaava ärsyttävä pureva hyönteinen
LinguaTutor XL1000 (an electronic pocket dictionary made in Finland by Finns for Finns learning English) - hyttynen

My wife, who is Finnish, was skeptical about the itikka -> mosquitio translation as she's never heard it used to refer to a mosquito. Her parents, also Finnish, agree and further clarify that itikka means mäkäräinen!

Is it a colloquial usage thing? Dialectal?

To which insects do itikka, sääsksi, hyttynen, and mäkärä/mäkäräinen refer?

[onkko]

10 points vihje, get a repellant you stick on electric outlet and use "mat" what that electric stuff heats (round black one, dunno about name), it is great. No sääski after that, mäkäräinen isnt problem inside at all so no need to protect from that.
Outside you just have to endure and bit of OFF repellant may help, i have given up and let them eat.
About name, i never argue about that, according to my knowledge itikka is cow in some areas. In our area those are "vittusaatananperkeleenhelevetinötökät" and that includes sääski, mäkärä and paarma and whatever buzzing around.

[Pursuivant]

Itikka would be a small insect, öttiäinen a bigger one. But yes, its a cow in some parts.

[Rekkari]

A *small* correction:

What my wife (and her parents) had said was that itikka, while not *specifically* a mosquito, can still be one (along with sääski, paarma, and mäkärä). So itikka is a catch-all term for a small winged biting insect(?).

After cross-referencing English/suomi Wikipedia entries for the above, here's what I now think:

mäkärä (family Simuliidae) = blackfly
hyttynen (family Culicidae) = mosquito
paarma (family Tabanidae) = horsefly
sääski (includes several families of the suborder Nematocera) = gnat

Sound reasonable?

[ml14]

According to one of the dictionaries at suomisanakirja.fi,

itikka
substantiivi
(murre) Pohjanmaalla käytetty lehmää tarkoittava sana
(arkikieli) hyttynen

Another dictionary source at the same site says something slightly different:

itikka
- hyttysistä ym. pienistä hyönteisistä. esim. Itikan purema.
- kans. nauta, lehmä.

You probably know this, but "ym." stands for "ynnä muista" here.

[onkko]

A *small* correction:

What my wife (and her parents) had said was that itikka, while not *specifically* a mosquito, can still be one (along with sääski, paarma, and mäkärä). So itikka is a catch-all term for a small winged biting insect(?).

After cross-referencing English/suomi Wikipedia entries for the above, here's what I now think:

mäkärä (family Simuliidae) = blackfly
hyttynen (family Culicidae) = mosquito
paarma (family Tabanidae) = horsefly
sääski (includes several families of the suborder Nematocera) = gnat

Sound reasonable?

Stop being reasonable, those little fuctards are called whatever local custom says. In here its ötökkä what is catch em all name for anything from blackfly to ant to bee, anything non mammal and small and annoying.

[Rekkari]

Stop being reasonable, those little fuctards are called whatever local custom says.