Are there mosquitoes in Paris? Yes, in the parks by day and through the window at night.

Yes. The Asian tiger mosquito is established in Paris and nearly all of the inner suburbs, where it bites by day in parks, courtyard gardens and on planted balconies, and the common house mosquito, Culex, finds you through an open window at night. The region has small, repeated local outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses, tiny next to the south of France, so for most visitors this comes down to a small spray and a room you can keep closed.

Two mosquitoes, two shifts

Santé publique France, the national public health agency, says the tiger mosquito is now established in every department of Île-de-France, and by the end of 2025 it had colonized Paris and all but four communes of the inner suburbs. It is small, silent and aggressive, lives outdoors in green spaces and bites hardest in the early morning and late afternoon. It breeds in small pools of clean water such as gutters, plant saucers and tree holes, and it flies only about 160 to 650 feet (50 to 200 m), so a park, a planted terrace or a courtyard garden brings it close.

The night shift is Culex, which whines, bites from dusk into the night and rests indoors behind curtains and under furniture. It breeds in drains, cellars and stagnant water, and it carries West Nile. Paris hotels and apartments tend not to have window screens, and many lack air conditioning, so on a hot night the window stays open. Close it at dusk and run a plug-in vaporizer, and if bites bother you, ask for a room facing the street rather than one over a garden courtyard. Evenings by the Canal Saint-Martin, the Bassin de la Villette or the Marne put you near still water at Culex time, so put repellent on before a waterside drink. Our repellent timing guide shows how long one coat lasts.

What the region's outbreaks add up to

The 2024 Olympics-period case was chikungunya. One person with symptoms starting on July 18, 2024, was infected in Paris or Gennevilliers, the region's first local chikungunya case. Île-de-France had no local dengue in 2024, 2025 or 2026, and its only local dengue cluster so far was 3 cases in the Val-de-Marne in 2023. In 2025 there were 2 single chikungunya cases, in Paris's 11th arrondissement and in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, and in August 2026 Nogent-sur-Marne had a 6-case cluster, now closed.

West Nile arrived in 2025, when ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority counted 18 local cases in seven departments of the region, 1 of them in Paris. In 2026 Santé publique France counted 27 local cases in Île-de-France as of October 19, led by the Val-de-Marne with 8. Fifteen had neurological illness and 4 died. None of the 2026 cases was infected in Paris proper, though infected birds turned up in the city. ECDC notes that most infections cause no symptoms and that severe illness falls mostly on people 65 and older.

Santé publique France watches for local cases from May 1 to November 30, the tiger mosquito's active season. The region's local chikungunya cases began in mid-July or August in each of the last three summers, and 2026's West Nile cases from mid-July. The CDC has no travel notice for France, recommends no malaria medicine, and lists the yellow fever vaccine as neither recommended nor required.

Where you're going

Here is how the parts of a Paris trip compare for a June–September stay. Local cases are few and scattered, so the scores are the same everywhere.

The France briefing covers the south, where the tiger mosquito bites harder, and our French Riviera briefing covers Nice, Antibes and the Var coast.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from a forum thread and linked so you can read it in full. It isn't dated to this season, and how many bites you get depends on your room and whether the window stays shut.

• Paris courtyard hotel

  A poster stayed at a hotel whose rooms surround a courtyard with a carefully tended flower garden. With no air conditioning the window had to stay open, and mosquitoes loved the garden; buying mosquito coils at the nearest Monoprix the next morning solved it, and larger pharmacies also stock them. Other replies said repellent is probably not needed for walking around Paris, even in parks, and one poster had a mosquito problem at only one of three Paris homes, blamed on neighbors' standing water. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever, rash, joint pain or severe headache during or within two weeks after your trip means a doctor visit, and you mention that local chikungunya and West Nile cases occur in the Paris region.

Traveler questions