Are there mosquitoes in the Canary Islands? A few, mostly after rain.

A few, and mostly after rain. On a December–April trip to the southern resorts of Tenerife or Gran Canaria, most visitors see very few mosquitoes, and the Canaries have never recorded a locally acquired case of dengue, chikungunya or Zika. The one story to follow is the islands' watch for invasive mosquitoes that arrive by ship.

Winter bites: after rain, and in the green north

Forum posters describe few mosquitoes from December to April in Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas. Bites tend to come a few days after rain or in still weather, and the greener north around Puerto de la Cruz and rural spots near reservoirs are likelier than the dry southern resorts. A minority who attract bites still find a few, including at resort pools.

Pack a little repellent for evenings after rain, garden dinners and walks in the north or near reservoirs. Picaridin 20%, DEET 20–30%, oil of lemon eucalyptus or PMD 30%, and IR3535 all work. Local supermarkets sell plug-in vaporizers cheaply if your room gets a few at night. On a villa terrace, empty any standing water, since the islands are trying to stop invasive mosquitoes from settling in.

The invasive mosquito watch

Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, is a stronger dengue carrier than the tiger mosquito, and it keeps reaching the Canaries by ship. In a March 2024 risk assessment, Spain's Ministry of Health listed one-off introductions on Fuerteventura, La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria since 2017, plus a breeding focus found in November 2023 in more than 50 homes in the Piletas neighborhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It rated the risk of local disease transmission "very low" and the risk of new introductions high, mainly by sea from Madeira, Cape Verde and West Africa.

Regional media have since reported specimens at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife cruise terminal in December 2025 and in Santa Cruz again in January 2026, and adults in the town center of Mogán, on Gran Canaria, in early October 2026, which health officials reportedly treated as a one-off introduction. The same outlets reported the tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, on La Gomera for the first time in late September 2026, on a farm near the mouth of the Valle Gran Rey ravine, and in Motor Grande, in Mogán, about two days later. The invasive mosquitoes found so far bite in the daytime and at dusk, in numbers far too small to be a nuisance.

Winter doesn't pause the introductions. The Santa Cruz finds came in December and January, and the ministry notes that cruise calls from Madeira peak in the October–April high season. None of this has produced a local case. The ministry counted 155 dengue, chikungunya and Zika cases notified in the Canaries from 2014 to 2023, all caught abroad, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) listed no local dengue on the islands in 2025 or in 2026 as of October 21. Gran Canaria had its first-ever West Nile outbreaks in animals in 2026, 3 as of October 7, according to ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority, with no human cases.

CDC's Spain page covers the Canaries. It has no travel notice, recommends no malaria medicine and says the yellow fever vaccine is neither recommended nor required.

Where you're going

Here is how the islands compare for a December–April trip.

Pairing the Canaries with Madeira? Our Madeira briefing covers that leg, and the Spain briefing covers a summer trip to the mainland and the Balearics.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from a TripAdvisor thread and linked so you can read it in full. It isn't dated, and on these islands a recent rain matters more than the year.

• Costa Adeje, Tenerife · February

  A traveler who attracts bites asked about the last two weeks of February. Replies were mixed: one said mosquitoes are present all year in Tenerife but more common in the warmer months, and another had been bitten on an October-November visit but not on a New Year trip when using repellent. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever during or after your trip means a doctor visit, and you tell the doctor where you were, especially if the trip also took in Cape Verde, West Africa or the Caribbean.

Traveler questions