Tuscan mosquitoes
 

We are looking for Chianti area apartments/farmhouse/villa accomodations for a week stay in June/July. How concerned do we need to be about bugs and mosquitos. I remember Assisi being pretty buggy a few years ago...should we limit ourselves to the (few) places with air conditioning?

When we stayed in a Tuscan villa in July (it was very hot) we wouldn't have even used the AC if we'd had it; the house was dark and well insulated so it always stayed nice and cool. However, we did share our bedroom with a family of wasps and a scorpion or two (talk about sleeping with one eye open!). And yeah, we all ended up with quite a few unrecognizable bites. We were just so excited to be there we really didn't care, though.

Screens or AC probably wouldn't help with a scorpion problem. The point of air conditioning is not the heat...just that it allows you to keep windows closed. I would prefer to have the fresh air, even if it is warm, but I am not sure I want to spray myself and my family with DEET just to keep from scratching all the time. How much of a problem has this been for people? By the way, Jocleyn, where did you stay?

We stayed at Villa Nava, through www.tuscanynow.com. It was about halfway between Florence and Arezzo, up in the Chianti hills. It was a stunningly beautiful location and property, but a half hour drive to the nearest train station (Montevarchi) and about 20 minutes to the highway. There were lots of untouristed small towns nearby which were a real treat, but next time we'd like to be a little less secluded. The villa itself had 6 bedrooms and was very rustic but charming. tuscanynow.com has hundreds of properties, and of course there are countless similar websites.

Keep in mind, if you're going to be outside in the evenings, eating out on the back patio or wandering the grounds, you'll need insect spray anyway to keep the bugs away.

We had a similar problem in the south of France and all of us ended up looking like we had a terminal disease! We then found these mosquito heating repellents or something like that in one of the drawers. You plug it in and it releases something I'm pretty sure isn't terribly good to breathe, but it had a pretty good effect on killing the mosquitoes.

topping for kevdoy

the mosquitoes love me. How do I say Mosquito repellent in Italian?

Should I bring anti-bug juice, or can I get it in Italy and what do I ask for?

The word for mosquitoes in Italian is "zanzare," and all the repellants in the store seem to be for spraying around the room rather than on one's body so I'd suggest you bring your own can of Off or something like it. I once bought a plug in contraption that released some poisonous gas in the house, but the whole thing made me nervous. You really don't need A/C as long as you have window screens.

kevdoy,

We were in the Chianti area a few weeks ago, and yes, it was quite buggy. I wouldn't recommend limiting yourselves to places that offer AC. In Europe AC is often shut off at night and/or may not run as cold as you're used to at home.

There is a very good repellant that you can purchase in Europe. The name is Autan.
It is made by Bayer, but I don't believe it is available in the US.
I don't like chemicals, either, but mosquitos love me and I need to use something.
We were careful at night in Italy and France to leave the lights out at night in the bedrooms. Of course, there were no screens on the windows. That way you could get a nice breeze and avoid the little beasties that bite.

Those little electrical thingies are called vape (vah-pay). There's a tablet of solid insecticide about two inches square that fits into a plate that is warmed by electricity. The insecticide is disseminated by the heat. The ones we used made no noise, and there was just a subtle smell of the gently wafting insecticide. You have to decide which is worse, the insecticide or the mosquitos; we opted to use the vape and are alive to tell the story.

Yes, they have it in Italy, anyway. I was hit only twice this summer (and NOT in Venice!!!), which is a surprise, being a mosquito magnet and, in the last couple of years, somewhat allergic to them. Saw this hardware shop on the other side of St. Mark's in Venice that had the warming electric things mentioned by another poster, that really do work. They also had a variety of other mosquito repellant gadgets.

Just checked the label on the repellant recommended by the pharmacist in Florence. It's Autan, the same as Cher mentioned above. Good stuff.

As you may be able to infer from these two posts, we were beseiged by mosquitos in Italy in September and October. We were careful not to turn on the lights in our room at night while the windows were open. I just pulled the sheet over my head, but DH, obviously sweeter than I, slathered himself with repellant and plugged in the vape.

Thanks for the feedback. I will bring something with me and buy more when I get there.

The mosquitos have not been bad in Florence this past week and we are on the Arno.

HI--I am really glad I read this post b/c we stayed in Chianti in a B&B w/o AC in late May one year and I had *no* idea that bugs, (let alone scorpions!!!) could be a problem. When we were there it still got very cool at night, so maybe the mosqitoes were not yet active. We had windows w/no screens of the old fashioned swing open type and we never saw any bugs, nor were we bitten. Now I am wondering if we were just lucky or if that time of year is safe from them.

Topping for Katerbug...

To Betsy, I found all this info this morning. What do you mean by Topping...? I wrote down the products mentioned (Autan, vape) and am looking forward to the scorpions when we're in Chianti in October! Ha ha. We're staying at Ricavo.

Topping means bringing the thread back to the top of the list so more folks will see it and (possibly) respond.

I've been in Venice in late June, Rome in July, Montepulciano in July, and Cinque Terre in June. Each time I left (granted, after varying lengths of time from 3 days to 5 weeks), I looked like I had the measles from mosquitoes. This is what happens without any form of anti-zanzara juice. The worst two were the 3 days in Venice and the 5 weeks in Rome; after the 4th week in Rome I had to start taking oral prednisone to reduce the over <b><i>200</i></b> mosquito bites I had received. Cortaid at that point was useless.

I'm fixing to leave for Italy this coming Thursday and I'm bringing a bottle of non-DEET Off. It uses some other sort of insect repellent (&quot;picaridin&quot; or somesuch) that isn't as sticky, gloppy, or heavy as the typical DEET-based stuff. Has anyone run it through a mosquito war zone? How well does it work?

Definitely a question that has appeared on the Africa board! You can buy deet wipes ( I bought mine on Amazon.com) but to really be effecive it has to have a pretty high percentage of DEET. Buzz off clothes are treated with permethrin. You can also get permethrin solution to wash your clothes in. It lasts on clothes for several washing and works. It is I think, a natural insect repellant. There are also several other products that contain permethrin. At least you don't have to take malaria medication in Italy..though I wasn't aware of the scorpions...yikes.

A poster asked about the month of May being, perhaps, early for mostquitos in parts of Italy. This is true; many mosquito problems don't occur until the nights are more consistently warm.

I too am a mosquito magnet, and after getting sick from hundreds of bites in Greece one year, I never travel without protection during the warm months. Yep, I'll buy things when I get there, but I need personal protection at hand.

Very few &quot;squamitos&quot; (as my now 26 year-old used to say when he was a pup) in Tuscany in late April/early May this year.

Katerbug, I brought the thread to the top position by typing &quot;topping&quot; instead of adding more info; some people type &quot;ttt&quot; to bring a thread to the top position. I knew (because I clicked on your name in blue) that you are relatively new to Fodors, so I wanted you to be sure to be able to find your thread.

Do you know that if you click on your user name, all the threads that you either originated or replied to can be found on the left-hand side of your screen?

Hello All,

I'm also headed for Chianti in an apt so this is an interesting thread!

When I travel to Australia/NZ, I always take &quot;Skinsations&quot; by Cutter (you can find it at Long's or Walgreens) as anytime you're near lakes, streams, etc, the nasty sand flea/flies or &quot;no-seeums&quot; can eat you alive. I understand that Avon makes a product called Skin So Soft that's supposed to repell mosquitos (and you'd get the bonus of nice smooth skin as well)! Haven't tried that one.

Just this week I got the Travel Smith catalog in the mail and they're advertising &quot;Buzz Off&quot; in clothes! In the clothes?! Who knew?

Of course, that's not going to help you in your room (unless you stay dressed all night)!

Surfergirl...I hear ya about So. France! I stayed at a charming B&amp;B during the freak heatwave they had a few years ago, had the window open and came back with 32 bites, which took weeks to clear up!

Melodie