Mosquitoes in Provence??
 

hello fellow fodorites,

can you tell me if the mosquitoes (and other biting bugs) are bad during september/october? we will be arriving sept. 29/2008 and will be staying for a week.

i'm quite allergic to mosquito bites and other similar bug bites (including bees) so i need to be prepared!

thanks.

in many trips to Provence in summer and fall i don't remember any mosquitos buzzing around in this rather arid climate.

But not sure so topping for some more authoritarian answer.

Depends on the area, but yes there are definitely mosquitoes around.

The only Place I saw them, were in the Camargue but there's alot of etangs (ponds) there where they can breed.

We had a few flies in St Remy, our hotel room did not have screens, but we were fine. BUT, I did get stung by a bee in Gordes,,,first sting in decades! Hurt like crazy. The hotel had wonderfully fragrant flowers and bushes close to the room, and I got too close. Bring benedryl.

In late June, we weren't bothered by mosquitoes at our rental outside of St. Remy (bedrooms had screens), but we did have lots of bees around the pool-had to spray every day.

But when we went to the pharmacy then the supermarket to stock up on repellant for our trip to the Camargue, they had sold out-not a bottle of mosquito "cologne" in sight.

For our trip to the Camargue our hosts gave us their bottles (called in Chanel #5), we drenched ourselves in it and were glad we did, as th mosquitoes swarmed around us the minute we opened the car door to take our boat trip. More mosquitoes than I had ever experienced in my life!

I felt sorry for the many on the boat who hadn't taken the precaution and whose bodies were completely covered with welts.

So, if you're planning a visit to the Camargue, even in Sept., I would go drenched in repellant and take a bottle along for a second dose.

hi all,

thanks for all the replies ... to further clarify, we will be staying in the carpentras area and will be visiting mainly towns/villages in the area. i've already read enough things about camarague to make me NOT want to visit there because of the mosquitos (generally, no amount of repellant helps me and i swell up enormously).

is the mosquito situation also bad in avignon, aix, nimes, arles, orange, st. remy etc. etc. in late sept/early october??

lilaki, we've stayed in Nyons (near Orange and Carpentras), the Luberon, Avignon, and Uzès in late September and early October. My recollection is that there were no mosquitoes in urban areas, such as Avignon. I have never been bitten during the day in any area we visited, including Aigues Mortes and St-Gilles, on the edge of the Camargue.

I did get a couple of bites at night in Uzès, as we were sleeping with the windows open and there were no screens. I wouldn't describe it as an epidemic, but there certainly were some. Best advice: bring whatever repellents and other treatments you normally would, and be prepared, at worst, to having to sleep with the window closed.

Seems to me, however, that this may vary from year to year. PalenQ referred to an arid climate, and much of Provence has certainly been dry the years we were there.

Anselm