Are there mosquitoes in Amsterdam? Yes, and they find you in bed.

Yes, mostly at night. The common house mosquito, Culex pipiens, bites from dusk into the night and comes in through unscreened bedroom windows on warm July and August nights, while daytime Amsterdam is close to bite-free. Since 2026 it also carries a small West Nile risk, with one locally acquired case in greater Amsterdam, so the closed-window routine now protects your health as well as your sleep.

The bedroom whine

RIVM, the Dutch public health institute, says the house mosquito is the most common mosquito in the Netherlands and is active mainly at dusk, in the evening and at night. It breeds in standing water such as plant saucers, gutters, rain barrels and tarps. The canals are a poor breeding site, so the mosquito in your room was most likely born in a gutter, planter or rooftop puddle nearby. Hotel and rental windows tend not to have screens, and on a hot night they stay open.

Keep the windows shut from dusk, or fit a stick-on window net, run a plug-in vaporizer from a Dutch supermarket or drugstore, and put a fan across the bed. For canal-side terraces, park evenings and dusk bike rides, put repellent on exposed skin. RIVM names DEET, picaridin, IR3535 and citriodiol, the active ingredient in oil of lemon eucalyptus, as proven. Our picaridin vs. DEET comparison covers the choice.

A houseboat puts you at water level, with windows and hatches that tend to stay open on a warm night, so close them before dusk. After a walk in the wooded Amsterdamse Bos, check for ticks and remove any quickly.

West Nile reached Amsterdam in 2026

The Netherlands had its first locally acquired West Nile cases in 2020, around Utrecht, and 2026 brought its first large season. RIVM counted 72 cases and 10 deaths nationwide as of October 22, with 41 infected in South Holland and 13 in Utrecht. North Holland, Amsterdam's province, had 7. ECDC's regional table puts 1 case, the area's first, in Groot-Amsterdam, the city and its surroundings, with 3 in nearby Het Gooi en Vechtstreek and 1 in IJmond. None of the 26 positive mosquito samples RIVM reported by October 22 came from North Holland. RIVM judges the risk of spread to people as low. Most infections are mild or silent. Travelers 65 or older or with weakened immune systems should take the evening routine most seriously.

The Asian tiger mosquito, the daytime biter behind dengue and chikungunya outbreaks in southern Europe, has not settled here. RIVM says there are no signs it has established in the Netherlands and the chance of being bitten by one is very small. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) watches entry routes and eliminates every find, including adults caught at Schiphol's cargo facilities in 2018 and 2019 and finds in Amstelveen and Uithoorn. A 2026 genetic study of the finds warned that some populations may already be established but undetected. No locally acquired dengue, chikungunya or Zika has ever been reported in the Netherlands, and the CDC recommends no malaria medicine or yellow fever vaccine.

Where you're staying

Here is how the parts of an Amsterdam stay compare for a June–September trip. The West Nile figure covers the whole Groot-Amsterdam area, so the disease score is the same everywhere.

The Netherlands briefing covers Rotterdam and Utrecht, where most of 2026's West Nile cases were, plus the Biesbosch and the Wadden Islands.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from older forum threads and a hotel photo caption, linked so you can read them in full. None is dated to a recent summer, and your room and the weather decide most of it.

• Amsterdam canal-side hotels · summer

  In an older Fodor's thread (posts mostly from around 2010-2014), experiences were split: some posters had never seen a mosquito in Amsterdam, while a guest at a canal-side hotel had at least 10 bites after the first night and a cited review of the Pulitzer hotel complained of a terrible mosquito problem and a promised room spraying that never happened. One poster said mosquitoes appear in mid to late summer; tips included plug-in devices and stick-on window nets. Fodor's ↗

• Amsterdam houseboats

  In a thread weighing a houseboat against a hotel or apartment, a poster said a houseboat is probably not the best idea for someone worried about mosquitoes. Fodor's ↗

• ITC Hotel, Amsterdam

  A guest's photo caption described a windowless basement room with mosquitoes buzzing in their ear, along with banging doors and thin walls. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever during or after your trip means a doctor visit, and you tell the doctor you were bitten by mosquitoes in the Netherlands. After a late-summer trip, a fever with a severe headache or a stiff neck needs prompt attention.

Traveler questions