Sorrento Travel Forum

Travelling to Sorrento in the middle of September. I suffer badly when bitten by mosquitoes and I would be very grateful if people can let me know how bad it is with mosquitoes at that time of year. I realise that some of the hotels on the out skirts of Sorrento are set back amongst the trees and will therefore have a lot of problems with mossies. I have booked an hotel near the centre ( bus and train station ). How high is the mosquitoe population there? Unable to use any DEET products. Any tips?

Some hotels in Sorrento itself are surrounded by trees but trees are not really the issue. If your hotel is where I suspect it is then you are unlikely to have any problems. Mosquitoes like damp ground..and there is not much of that in the centre of Sorrento.

I had not thought of Sorrento (or Italy) as having any real mosquito problem at all, to be honest. I too react badly to any bites, although my visits to Sorrento have been out-of-mosquito-season. I certainly do not use any chemical-based deterrents but, if you are worried, why not just buy and take along some of the many herbal/organic preparations and deterrents one can buy?

I do remember Rome having a mosquito problem in early fall, at a particular hour of the evening (deep twilight). This is when the persiani (those shutters that roll up and down) came in handy as the holes are mostly too small for mosquitoes to enter but some air can enter.

However, to J's (leics) point, we lived out in the country near Rome, not in the city itself. I can well believe that people in the city itself never noticed the problem unless they happen to live very close to a large green space with standing water.

Note that mid-September may still be warm (the last few summers have been hotter and longer than usual), and that the usual Italian practice of opening the windows in the early evening may not be appropriate for you, even in the center of the city...does your hotel have air-conditioning? If so, I don't think you'll have a problem (knock on wood).

As an aside, did you know that "malaria" comes from the Italian for "bad air"? This is because the mosquitoes would come out very predictably at that certain twilight hour, so people associated the disease with the air, not the insect. Spend the twilight indoors, and you should be fine...

Bill

We were there the beginning of Oct. and I don't recall any mosquitoes at all. There seemed to always be a good breeze coming off the sea and that may have helped. In you're staying center of town, I can't imagine you'd have any trouble.

I was certainly bitten by mosquitoes in the outskirts of Sorrento, as I was in Rome.

DEET is the best option in my view, but if you can't use that, a popular alternative among Scottish trout fishermen is Avon Skin So Soft. Herbal repellants based on bog myrtle are also effective. You should use a plug-in mosquito killer in your room. If you sleep with the windows open, consider wearing light socks, because mosquitos like feet.

I find that if I take Vitamin B (Thiamin) tablets for a month or so before I go to a potentially mosquito ridden area, that they seem to leave me alone. It supposedly gives you some sort of inbuilt repellant. I have a horror of any things that bite and leave me itching, so I get quite paranoid when I am around mosquitos, sandflies, midgies and the like. But I do find that the Vitamin B does do the trick. Another deterrent is lavender, I believe, but I don't suppose you want to carry a lavender plant in your luggage!!!! A citronella candle is really good and may be easier to manage when travelling.

No, thiamin does not work as a repellent in any reliable way. While it may seem to work for you, the research evidence shows that it is consistently ineffective.

Malaria is one of the world's three biggest killers, effective methods of avoiding mosquitoes have been research in tremendous depth and thiamin isn't one of them.

Citronella candles can be useful in a confined space. You can also get a citronella gel stick that scents a room, which seems quite effective, especially as hotel owners can get twitchy about candles.

You can also get citronella-type stuff you put on your skin.

The vit B thing (translated into 'eat lots of Marmite' on UK archaeological digs) only seems to work for some people. I suspect it is related to your own individual bodily 'smell' (sorry). Doesn't work for me (and I love Marmite).

But I'm pretty sure the OP will be ok in a central-Sorrento hotel.

Probably also worth saying that some people who think "I don't get bitten" or "that repellent works for me" are in fact people who don't produce much of an inflammatory reaction to insect bites. They are still getting bitten, though.

MANY THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR HELP. IT SOUNDS AS THOUGH I DON'T HAVE TOO MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT AND CAN GO AHEAD WITH THE HOLIDAY ( ALREADY BOOKED ). SO LONG AS I TAKE THE USUAL PRECAUTIONS IN THE EVENINGS.

Absolutely the case, imo.