buzbuz

On our last trip to France, we were troubled by mosquitos in our hotel room on more than one occasion. Of course, you don't realize it until it's dark, you are trying to sleep, and you hear that buzzing noise in your ear! <BR> <BR>Since most hotels don't have a/c, and lots of rooms are very smoky (non-smoking rooms don't exist), you pretty much have to open a window - and in fly the critters. <BR> <BR>So what's the trick? Any travellers out there have any secrets?

lottie

If you wear ear plugs, you won't hear them and they won't disturb your sleep! (you may get a couple bites, but it all seems ok when you are well-rested.)

Jeannette

If they are truly mosquitoes, try wearing Avon Skin So Soft to bed. It's very pleasant on the skin and smells good yet it repels mosquitoes fairly well. The insects might be little flies or moths that live next to rivers. In that case, when you leave for dinner, close all the windows and turn out all the lights (they're attracted to the light). When you get back, keep the windows closed until you turn the lights out. Then you can open the windows in the dark and only a handful will come into the room. We stayed at several different hotels in the Dordogne that were right on the water and this trick worked well for us.

theothertopper

top please

Joanne

Take extra B vitamins. Most of the surplus is excreted in your urine, but some appears in sweat, and the mosquitos are repelled by it.

Betty

I have often had the same problem, so last fall, before my trip to France, I went to the local hardware store and bought a couple of yards of nylon screening material. It is very soft and pliable so it was no problem to fold up and put in the bottom of my suitcase. I also took along some thumb tacks, but I think tape would have worked better. As it turned out, I only had occasion to use it once by hanging it over the opening of a French door as we were having dinner. (We were in a rental house.) It did help to keep out some rather large mosquito-like bugs. To be effective against smaller mosquitos, I think it would have to be taped all around and that might or might not be easy depending on the way your window opens. Just another possibility.

kavey

You can buy candles with a special scent which mosquitos don't like. <BR>Don't leave it burning in your room when you aren't there but perhaps burn it for a while before you go to sleep. <BR>There are also many plug in mosquito repellent devices on the market you could investigate and take with you. <BR>Alternatively just rub in some insect repellent cream as suggested above.

Book Chick

When in school in Italy, I discovered at The Co-op store a mosquito repellent one placed on the window sill & burned all night long, like solid incense. It did not have an unpleasant or overwhelming odor, and was very effective. <BR> <BR>BC

Joe

We go on our summer trip every year in July (my wife is in Education and that is when she can go). We always expect and prepare for mosquitos because at home, July is a bad month for mosquitos. Yet, we have seldom had a problem. I am talking all over Europe, West, East, Central, etc. They don't bother me much. My wife is very susceptible. But, we simply haven't encountered them to any great degree. Very strange. <BR> <BR>

PamR

I had the dubious experience of sleeping in a room without window screens in a muggy August on a Venetian island. Talk about mosquitoes! I tried all the things I could think of to get rid of them (including netting, which was too hot because air doesn't pass through) and the only thing that worked was those coils you burn. (Someone else suggested them.) You can usually find these in local stores in Europe. I haven't seen them here. You need to set them by the bed and be careful not to step on them in the middle of the night! But they do work.

Susan

We buys the coils (we even use them outside here in Toronto in the summer). There was also a device that we bought in Turkey - it plugged into the wall and had some sort of repellent in it. It worked very well. Not sure what it was doing to our lungs, but at least we didn't get bitten!

Chris

You can go to a Carrefour and pick up plug in mosquito stuff. The unit itself heats up when you plug it in and you can buy strips or a bottle with liquid. We had one with the strips and it worked really well.

c

My son lives in Japan and the mosquitos are a real problem in the summer when the rice fields are full of water..they sell these little things that you plug in, the have no smell, and last for a month, and he did not have one mosquito! before he got this little gadget, he was being eaten alive!

Sue

One summer in Greece my sister-in-law got bitten all over legs, there must have been a thousand little tiny bites. We were all sitting by the pool and the rest of us did not get bitten. It was very odd. The mosquitos there were very tiny, not like the ones we have in New Englans. They had those coils you pug in at the villa we rented. I am mixed about how they work. I did not relize mosquitos were an issue all over Europe. If you stay by the sea a breeze usually keeps them away.