Where can I go that is warm but no mosquitoes?

[damemaggiescurledupperlip]

i love the idea of wafting around in a light, airy halter-neck dress on holiday, and have the wardrobe for it.

but increasingly, if I go out in the evening in the UK where I live I am eaten alive so wear long sleeve tops and trousers , which feels very dull I don’t want to do it on holiday!!

the only “safe” places I’ve been recently were Oman , and Turkey but right on the sea. Cruises tend to work well though

Italy seems to be a mozzie nightmare during the day as well as the evenings now according to other threads.

where is good?

(I’m booked for Japan next year and hoping for the best)

We were in Gran Canaria last month and no bites whatsoever…..and I’m usually a complete magnet for them!

Cyprus

Ooh!

Never been bitten in Egypt. Mind you, the food poisoning I came home with was 100 times worse!

Sardinia. No problems at all when I stayed in Alghero in May.

They need standing fresh water to breed. I believe there is not much of that on the Canary Islands, plus they are quite windy which helps.

Currently in Menorca and amazingly no bites. However it's been very hot, so we've sat outside less, which may be why.

I can't remember getting any in Croatia, Dubrovnik area.

The fucking desert. No seriously they are everywhere but need standing water so anywhere that’s dry as a bone will help. Alternatively somewhere windy as they can’t land in a stiff breeze.
I live in a very mosquitoey part of the world and am a magnet and we are outdoors all the the time with door open etc. I’ve found that most people just don’t prepare properly. You need a combo of the below. One thing isn’t effective enough.

1. the highest strength DEET based repellent in a spray can. Usually you can get bigger strength abroad so buy there. Ignore anything natural or Skin So Soft nonsense they DO NOT work.
2. Spray yourself in the daytime. Yes they hang about in the shade.
3. Before the sun starts setting spray yourself liberally. If you have bare skin during golden hour with no repellent that’s the witching hour and you will be murdered. Most people spray far too late. If you can go indoor or cover up for this part of the day even safer. It’s just for an hour or so.
4. shut all windows and doors. Spray room with deet when you leave for the night. Spray again when you get back but make sure it’s a while before you go in to sleep. Plug ins seem to have a little effect
5. Try and cover up as much as possible as soon as sun starts going down. If you can wear long sleeves or trousers even better but realise that’s not ideal for all climates. When sitting at a restaurant I bring a light scarf to cover my legs (fully DEETed)
6. in bed try to have at least a sheet over you and put on fans full blast so if there are any I t he room they can’t land.
7. keep spray with you and reapply to target areas. I know they love my ankles so I keep them covered when I can and reapply regularly.

Combo if the above means I’ve had about 2 bites in 2 years. if you do get bitten resist the urge to scratch and they tend to go by the next day. Alternatively the hairdryer/hot spoon trick works for me.

You can Google a mosquito map from European centre for disease control, but they are present across all of the med. There are patches of the Atlantic coast of Portugal (not the Algarve area) where they are absent, mostly absent in the UK, excluding Kent, but we do have a lot of midges, and they are also absent also in Denmark and most of Scandinavia. Lots of other bitey insects in Northern Scandinavia though! I think repellant is your friend. Also not everyone gets bitten equally, in our household the kids can have multiple bites and my husband and I will have none. Unfortunately it doesn't necessarily follow that if other people weren't bitten that you won't get bitten.

Somewhere windy. Fuerteventura? Cape Verde?

No bites when I went to Lisbon and it was bloody boiling

I’m also a mozzie magnet and find that anywhere where there’s a consistent breeze helps so I didn’t get a single bite in Greece in June as we were on a windy coastline. I have family near Venice and it’s the worst place on earth for them as you can imagine with the standing water and humidity. I also found very few In Tenerife and the algarve. I’ve started taking very strong antihistamines 2 weeks before I go and I got bitten less than usual and the ones I did get didn’t react as badly. Also highly recommend jungle formula!

Mozzies LOVE me ! I found a cream in India many years ago called Odomos that they sold for about £1. Applied legs, arms, neck, toes everywhere and you do not get bit. Amazon and other UK shops now sell it - think its about £8 for a couple of tubes but it is a god send and I have used it in India, Thailand, Mexico, Italy, Turkey and Greece.

Following this thread for my poor DD’s sake.

I took her to Italy early this summer and she has hundreds of bites all over that are still scabbed and annoying her.

Poor thing looks diseased. ☹️

Thanks for this, I’ll be stocking up!!

Many parts of Italy now have the invasive Asian Tiger Mosquito. They are large and stripey, and hunt all day and night not just at dusk. The bites can be nastier too. Dd was bitten by one in spain and the bite was noticeably worse compared to a bog standard Mozzie.
I do think it depends on the time of year though. I am an absolute magnet for insects and yet in Florence I didn’t get bitten at all, mid September.
Crete can be relatively free of them if you go somewhere windy.

Up in the Alps - summer in a ski resort.

I am usually eaten alive by mossies. Just got back from two weeks in northern Portugal (inland, around rivers). No mossie bites at all for the whole trip and only two wasps spotted (bonus!) until we hit Porto for three days where we were absutely eaten alive by tiny biting flies! So fly into Porto but get out of there fast!

@massistar can I please ask you what antihistamines you take?

Agree with @oviraptor21 - you need altitude and preferably wind if you want both a good likelihood of sun and fewer mosquitoes. Not a guarantee though of course.

Somewhere like Saint Martin de Belleville is wonderful as it is a normal town in the summer and doesn't all close up shop like some ski resorts. Lots to do as well as the gondolas are still working and you can cycle, hike, do forest adventures etc.

It’s the spread that is so startling

30 years ago, we lived in Florida and then Virginia. The mosquitoes were terrible , and there were worries that the tiger mosquitoes were spreading from Asia

25 years ago, went to Venice and Tuscany on honeymoon - v v few bites and took few precautions. Turkey the same

have I just got tastier with age ? I think the critters have proliferated.

geadually, Europe has got worse and worse - the tiger mosquitoes are there now too. think they will be everywhere soon. Certainly. , I can’t sit out in our Home Counties garden anymore without mosquito coils and spray.

I got the worst bites of my life in Florence.

Turned out to be bed bugs 😫

They aren’t mostly absent in the UK. They have been rife in the south for years: London, Essex, Avon, Cambridgeshire etc

@Tralalalalatatait’s Fexofenadine

@damemaggiescurledupperlip it’s definitely the bastarding tiger mosquitoes in Venice. I’ve been going there for 30 years and it used to be just dusk I’d get bitten whereas now it’s all day long.