Are there mosquitoes in Venice? Yes, and they come in through the window.

Yes. Venice has two kinds of biting mosquito. The Asian tiger mosquito bites by day in gardens, courtyards and shady campi, and night-biting Culex mosquitoes, the carriers of West Nile virus, find you through an open bedroom window. Venezia province had 22 West Nile cases in 2026 and no local dengue or chikungunya, so for most visitors this comes down to a closed, air-conditioned room at night and repellent for evenings outside.

Where the bites come from

Venice looks like ideal mosquito country, yet the tidal, brackish water in the canals is a poor breeding ground. The bites come from courtyards, gardens and green corners, and from bedrooms with the windows open at night. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) ranks the Veneto among Italy's densest areas for the tiger mosquito, so expect daytime bites in shaded gardens and campi as well as the night biters after dark.

Screens are uncommon in Venetian hotels, so book a room with air conditioning that lets you keep the windows shut, and ask about screens. A plug-in vaporizer covers a room that has neither. Before a canal-side dinner or a drink in a courtyard, put repellent on your ankles and arms. Picaridin 20%, DEET 20–30%, oil of lemon eucalyptus 30% and IR3535 all work, and our picaridin vs. DEET comparison explains the choice.

In the Lido's gardens and on day trips to Murano and Burano, the tiger mosquito is the daytime biter. Mestre and the mainland edge of the lagoon have more gardens and standing water than the islands and tend to have more mosquitoes.

West Nile, and when to take care

West Nile is the one mosquito-borne virus documented in Venezia province in recent years. Italy's national health institute (ISS) counted 22 confirmed locally acquired cases in the province in 2026 as of October 21, out of 141 in the Veneto and 770 in Italy. ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority counted 23 in Venezia province in 2025. The figures cover the whole province, which also takes in Mestre and beach towns such as Jesolo and Chioggia, so they can't be split between the historic center, the Lido and the mainland. Most infections cause no symptoms, and ECDC notes that severe illness falls mostly on people 65 and older.

ECDC recorded no locally acquired dengue or chikungunya in Venezia province from 2023 through 2026. The Veneto's clusters were inland, including 8 dengue cases in Cartigliano, in Vicenza province, still open on October 21, 2026, and the 2025 chikungunya outbreak around Verona. CDC has no travel notice for Italy and recommends no malaria medicine, and the yellow fever vaccine is neither recommended nor required. CDC also lists leishmaniasis, spread by sand flies that bite from dusk to dawn, which the evening routine covers.

June is the easiest summer month. In the northern Italy data ECDC cites, adult tiger mosquitoes were abundant from May to September and peaked in late July, so July and August bring the most daytime bites. Italy's 2026 West Nile cases peaked at the end of August, so a late-August or September stay is when the closed window matters most. A warm, wet spring can start the biting in April or May, and numbers drop after September.

Where you're staying

Here is how the parts of Venice compare for a June–September trip. The West Nile figures are province-wide, so the disease score is the same everywhere.

The Italy briefing covers Rome, Florence and the rest of the country, and our Amalfi Coast briefing covers the coast south of Naples.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from TripAdvisor threads and a hotel review, linked so you can read them in full. Individual trips vary with the weather and with whether your windows stay shut.

• Venice · July (and spring) · 2024

  In a thread from about 2024, posters described mosquitoes as heavy in the early evening; one said they were already bad in April and May, and another blamed a warm, wet spring for unusually high numbers. Replies recommended repellent, plug-in devices, keeping windows shut and antihistamines or itch cream, and one linked a 2024 city notice about extraordinary pest control after a case of virus infection. TripAdvisor ↗

• Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido Resort, Lido di Venezia · October · 2014

  An October 2014 guest said that opening the door or the windows let mosquitoes in and kept them awake, and suggested the hotel invest in netting or screens. TripAdvisor ↗

• Venice (canals, mid-June) · June

  Posters said the moving, brackish lagoon water in the canals is not where mosquitoes breed; they gather more in the city's greener spots such as parks and inner courtyards. The standard advice was to keep windows shut and the air conditioning on at night and use a DEET repellent in the evening. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. A fever with headache, rash or joint pain during or after your trip means a doctor visit, and you tell the doctor you were bitten by mosquitoes in Venice.

Traveler questions