Mosquito Free Places

[dumbnewbie]

Boy, that long thread on mosquitoes really got me thinking. Here are the key points I took away:

1) There's practically no way to avoid being bitten - if mosquitoes are around, it's just a matter of time - you will be bitten.

2) All it takes is ONE bite from the wrong mosquito to give you a life-threatening and/or incurable disease - malaria (4 different kinds?), Dengue fever, West Nile virus, Yellow Fever (not that kind!), various kinds of encephalitis, and "god" knows what else. (And even after being ridiculed on another thread for bringing up the question, I still don't understand the official party line about mosquitoes not being able to transmit the HIV virus... if they can transmit all these other diseases from one person to another, why not HIV too?) This is not a hypothetical danger - every year over a million people die from mosquito borne diseases, while millions more suffer serious illness short of death.

3) All these chemical mosquito sprays, lotions, smoke from burning coils, etc. aren't exactly harmless to us - even while far from 100% effective against mosquitoes.

SOOO.... it seems to me that the best thing to do is to carefully choose where you live, travel, and otherwise spend your time in order to avoid mosquitoes in the first place.

With that in mind, I hope this thread can shed light on what places are relatively (or totally!) mosquito free - both within Thailand and anywhere else in the world. Do some regions, cities or parts of cities have more mosquitoes than others? Beaches, mountains, rivers... which are better/worse? The Isaan region is supposed to be relatively hot and dry - so does it have fewer mosquitoes?

Also, what conditions or seasons produce fewer mosquitoes? My guess is that the best time in Thailand is just before the rainy season - after the long, hot "dry season" - this should be the time with the fewest mosquitoes, right? So is the rainy season the worst, or that intermediate season between rainy and dry?

Are there any mosquito-free countries? Apparently they are a problem anywhere it's wet enough and warm enough. So dry and/or cold should be good.

Does anyone know how cold it has to be for mosquitoes to disappear? They don't seem to do well inside air-conditioned buildings - does anyone know what the threshold temperature is?

What about elevation? Are cities/regions at high elevation mosquito-free? I'm thinking places like Tibet, Denver, Mexico City, etc. Can they not exist above a certain elevation for some reason? (I guess I ask because high-altitude places have a reputation for being healthier than those at sea level and I'm not sure why).

What places do you have experience with that have a lot of mosquitoes, or few? For instance:

1) What months are mosquitoes active in the Scandinavian countries (and Canada, Alaska, etc.)? What

2) Are they active year-round in all parts of the UK? If not, what temperature seems to kill them off for the winter? What about other European countries?

3) What about Australia and NZ? What areas have a lot, or none? And what times of year?

What I can say is pretty basic - in the US, mosquitoes are a problem in the summer time in the Midwest, Northeast and South, and I guess also in the Rocky mountain states (but only below a certain altitude?). Not sure about the Pacific Northwest. But in Southern California I never encountered them. I assume the same is true for the entire desert southwest area of the US and Mexico. The only exception seems to be man-made bodies of stagnant water - i.e., swimming pools of foreclosed houses - apparently if you don't maintain the pool water by adding chlorine periodically, the water becomes an ideal breeding ground for swarms of mosquitoes. Fortunately, I've only read about this sort of thing in the newspaper.

[JR Texas]

Boy, that long thread on mosquitoes really got me thinking. Here are the key points I took away:

1) There's practically no way to avoid being bitten - if mosquitoes are around, it's just a matter of time - you will be bitten.

2) All it takes is ONE bite from the wrong mosquito to give you a life-threatening and/or incurable disease - malaria (4 different kinds?), Dengue fever, West Nile virus, Yellow Fever (not that kind!), various kinds of encephalitis, and "god" knows what else. (And even after being ridiculed on another thread for bringing up the question, I still don't understand the official party line about mosquitoes not being able to transmit the HIV virus... if they can transmit all these other diseases from one person to another, why not HIV too?) This is not a hypothetical danger - every year over a million people die from mosquito borne diseases, while millions more suffer serious illness short of death.

3) All these chemical mosquito sprays, lotions, smoke from burning coils, etc. aren't exactly harmless to us - even while far from 100% effective against mosquitoes.

SOOO.... it seems to me that the best thing to do is to carefully choose where you live, travel, and otherwise spend your time in order to avoid mosquitoes in the first place.

With that in mind, I hope this thread can shed light on what places are relatively (or totally!) mosquito free - both within Thailand and anywhere else in the world. Do some regions, cities or parts of cities have more mosquitoes than others? Beaches, mountains, rivers... which are better/worse? The Isaan region is supposed to be relatively hot and dry - so does it have fewer mosquitoes?

Also, what conditions or seasons produce fewer mosquitoes? My guess is that the best time in Thailand is just before the rainy season - after the long, hot "dry season" - this should be the time with the fewest mosquitoes, right? So is the rainy season the worst, or that intermediate season between rainy and dry?

Are there any mosquito-free countries? Apparently they are a problem anywhere it's wet enough and warm enough. So dry and/or cold should be good.

Does anyone know how cold it has to be for mosquitoes to disappear? They don't seem to do well inside air-conditioned buildings - does anyone know what the threshold temperature is?

What about elevation? Are cities/regions at high elevation mosquito-free? I'm thinking places like Tibet, Denver, Mexico City, etc. Can they not exist above a certain elevation for some reason? (I guess I ask because high-altitude places have a reputation for being healthier than those at sea level and I'm not sure why).

What places do you have experience with that have a lot of mosquitoes, or few? For instance:

1) What months are mosquitoes active in the Scandinavian countries (and Canada, Alaska, etc.)? What

2) Are they active year-round in all parts of the UK? If not, what temperature seems to kill them off for the winter? What about other European countries?

3) What about Australia and NZ? What areas have a lot, or none? And what times of year?

What I can say is pretty basic - in the US, mosquitoes are a problem in the summer time in the Midwest, Northeast and South, and I guess also in the Rocky mountain states (but only below a certain altitude?). Not sure about the Pacific Northwest. But in Southern California I never encountered them. I assume the same is true for the entire desert southwest area of the US and Mexico. The only exception seems to be man-made bodies of stagnant water - i.e., swimming pools of foreclosed houses - apparently if you don't maintain the pool water by adding chlorine periodically, the water becomes an ideal breeding ground for swarms of mosquitoes. Fortunately, I've only read about this sort of thing in the newspaper.

Wow.........lots of questions. Let me give my input.........Southeast Asia (the Tropics in general) is a mosquito infested place. Thailand is no exception.

If you live in Thailand in a building, say 14th floor and above (on the ocean front with lots of wind coming off the ocean)..........you might avoid the buggers if you don't ever go outside.

They love it around sunset and especially sunrise.......just before sunrise.........so watch it at those two times.

If you live in a temperate climate, you might be able to avoid them if you live high enough above sea level.

How high is that? No idea..........maybe a mosquito expert will show up here and tell us.

The problem in Thailand is that virtually no expat retirement areas are high above sea level.

[TallForeigner]

Wow! Really a ton of questions. I'm no authority on mosquitoes. I know at least one place in Bangkok that where I have never ever seen a mosquito: It's my office on the 23rd floor near Chit Lom.

I can speak with athority on one of your questions - I have worked in AIDS research and AIDS vaccine development for many years. You don't need to worry about getting HIV/AIDS from a mosquito bite. It hasn't happened until now and it will not happen. The reasons are two-fold. The most important reason is that the "inoculum size" you might get from a mosquito bite is too low. You need to be infected with a minimum quantity of virus and there is no chance that from a mosquito bite enough virus can be transmitted. Another reason is that it has been shown that the survival rate of the HIV virus outside the human body and inside the mosquito's intestines is low; the "saliva" of the mosquito kills already a fair amount of the virus.

Virus is not like virus - thank god that the HIV virus is quite fragile and you need quite a lot of them to get an infection. There are other viruses around where 100 or 1000 less virus particles are already enough to create an infection.

[zzdocxx]

Wow! Really a ton of questions. I'm no authority on mosquitoes. I know at least one place in Bangkok that where I have never ever seen a mosquito: It's my office on the 23rd floor near Chit Lom.

I can speak with athority on one of your questions - I have worked in AIDS research and AIDS vaccine development for many years. You don't need to worry about getting HIV/AIDS from a mosquito bite. It hasn't happened until now and it will not happen. The reasons are two-fold. The most important reason is that the "inoculum size" you might get from a mosquito bite is too low. You need to be infected with a minimum quantity of virus and there is no chance that from a mosquito bite enough virus can be transmitted. Another reason is that it has been shown that the survival rate of the HIV virus outside the human body and inside the mosquito's intestines is low; the "saliva" of the mosquito kills already a fair amount of the virus.

Virus is not like virus - thank god that the HIV virus is quite fragile and you need quite a lot of them to get an infection. There are other viruses around where 100 or 1000 less virus particles are already enough to create an infection.

Really interesting information, thank you. I have found it challenging to explain the concept of inoculum size to lay people.

[Meridian007]

I'm no expert on mosquitoes (aside from being pestered by them my whole life), but I think the only places that don't have mosquitoes are the places that also don't have many plants or animals living there (Antarctica, any desert, etc). Therefore, if you want to live there, chances are that there will be mosquitoes.

Canada is a big place so I can only speak for Ontario. Mosquitoes are at their worst during the transition from spring to summer, and then summer to autumn (not as much). They are still around during the summer, but there aren't as many as these transition times (because of the higher moisture levels). Usually October is the last month for mosquitoes as we have at least one frost during that month which kills them off.

The early spring is also too cold for them, but you have to deal with blackflies then, which IMO are much worse.

In short, as other posters have said, mosquitoes like moist conditions within a certain temperature range. Thailand gives them the humidity they need, but they are most active during the morning and evening because of the temperature.

[Trickcyclist]

They sometimes come up in lifts to the higher floors if the lobby isn't kept free of them.

As for HIV/AIDs mosquito transmission: there always seem to be a convenient answer to any question on the mysteries of HIV/AID.s transmission.

Wow! Really a ton of questions. I'm no authority on mosquitoes. I know at least one place in Bangkok that where I have never ever seen a mosquito: It's my office on the 23rd floor near Chit Lom.

I can speak with athority on one of your questions - I have worked in AIDS research and AIDS vaccine development for many years. You don't need to worry about getting HIV/AIDS from a mosquito bite. It hasn't happened until now and it will not happen. The reasons are two-fold. The most important reason is that the "inoculum size" you might get from a mosquito bite is too low. You need to be infected with a minimum quantity of virus and there is no chance that from a mosquito bite enough virus can be transmitted. Another reason is that it has been shown that the survival rate of the HIV virus outside the human body and inside the mosquito's intestines is low; the "saliva" of the mosquito kills already a fair amount of the virus.

Virus is not like virus - thank god that the HIV virus is quite fragile and you need quite a lot of them to get an infection. There are other viruses around where 100 or 1000 less virus particles are already enough to create an infection.

[Donnyboy]

for NZ, the warmer months (nov-mar) is when you are likely to be bitten, and usually in the evening

agree with the comment made previously, that you need to watch out around sunset & sunrise, I usually close all doors and windows before sunset to stop them flying inside

i find the bite from a thai mozzie not as itchy after a few hours whereas in nz, it could itch for the next day or 2, weird eh?

Edited February 5, 2010 by Donnyboy

[JusMe]

Mosquitoes have been found on high mountain glaciers, so altitude alone isn't enough to avoid them.

Although the individual insect mosquito might be killed by frost, the eggs survive freezing and hatch in the spring, so we've got a brand new horde of them every year. Only thing that slows (not eliminates) them, is a super-dry period. Quick alternation between moist warmth and dry freeze can sure bother them, but not enough to do more than diminish a season's hatch.

[thaihome]

You never saw them in Southern California because there is an active abatement program in virtually every county in California. This page says there are 53 different species in California.

TH

[lioness]

It appears most places have them to some degree, In Thailand we have mosquitos but there are Malaria free areas.

I don't know about others living here, but I am right on a river and only get mozzies first light and just on dusk, the rest of the time we are mosquito free.

[Zpete]

I do not think anywhere other than the polar regions may be totally free from skeeters.

I lived on Waiheke Is, outer Auckland harbour, NZ.

With rain water tank supply, skeeters were endemic.

50 years ago, I was always bitten and had lumps which were itchy as.

Some time, years later, no idea when, I realised skeeters were NOT biting me anymore.

I was in Chiang Mai at Sukhutai Thai BBQ a cupla years back where skeeters were biting everyone.

It was fascinating watching them land on my bare arms and legs and quickly fly off.

I always say it is what I eat, marmite or vegemite which contain massive amounts of vitamin B12.

Is it possible my body built up some chemical that repels skeeters, iether from the massive skeeter attacks, or from the marmite I eat, vegemite too.

Other family members have a similar resistance built in.

Total mystery to me, but welcome none the less.

Any ideas?

[JusMe]

I lived on Waiheke Is, outer Auckland harbour, NZ.

With rain water tank supply, skeeters were endemic.

50 years ago, I was always bitten and had lumps which were itchy as.

Some time, years later, no idea when, I realised skeeters were NOT biting me anymore.

I was in Chiang Mai at Sukhutai Thai BBQ a cupla years back where skeeters were biting everyone.

It was fascinating watching them land on my bare arms and legs and quickly fly off.

Any ideas?

There are significant differences in mosquitoes over different countries.

Years ago, in Canada, I'd get bitten and it would itch for a day or so. Moved to Australia, got bitten, and it would itch for at least a week.

Australian girlfriend, who wasn't bothered at all by Aussie mosquitoes, got bitten when we were on vacation in Canada. She had weeping sores on her legs for several months.

Different ones we grow up with, maybe we build up some kind of resistance? Or if we're affected by the ones at home, because another country's mosquitoes pump a different kind of saliva, we're not affected by them?

Not sure of the answers, but there are differences between people, and locations.

[bubba1217]

I lived on Waiheke Is, outer Auckland harbour, NZ.

With rain water tank supply, skeeters were endemic.

50 years ago, I was always bitten and had lumps which were itchy as.

Some time, years later, no idea when, I realised skeeters were NOT biting me anymore.

I was in Chiang Mai at Sukhutai Thai BBQ a cupla years back where skeeters were biting everyone.

It was fascinating watching them land on my bare arms and legs and quickly fly off.

Any ideas?

There are significant differences in mosquitoes over different countries.

Years ago, in Canada, I'd get bitten and it would itch for a day or so. Moved to Australia, got bitten, and it would itch for at least a week.

Australian girlfriend, who wasn't bothered at all by Aussie mosquitoes, got bitten when we were on vacation in Canada. She had weeping sores on her legs for several months.

Different ones we grow up with, maybe we build up some kind of resistance? Or if we're affected by the ones at home, because another country's mosquitoes pump a different kind of saliva, we're not affected by them?

Not sure of the answers, but there are differences between people, and locations.

I like everybody else am no expert but I have hated the little f*****kers for some time...

I know this... They like dark moist places, low to th ground... they need human blood to reproduce.. they are active all day and all night but are most active during the early evening and early morning.... they carry some deseases such as malaria and dengue but not aids.... they tend to be teritorial but can travel up to 300km with caught in a strong wind

Bottom line to reduce is get ride of all plant pots etc that have water.... less vegetation the better as it offers dark places low to the ground... stay indoors during the early evening/morning or live in a condo on a high floor...

Personnally I use a mosquito misting system... this sparys an insecticide to kill them but it is not 100%... closer to 90% reduction since i had it installed...makes it tolerable.

[JusMe]

I know this... They like dark moist places, low to th ground... they need human blood to reproduce.. they are active all day and all night but are most active during the early evening and early morning.... they carry some deseases such as malaria and dengue but not aids.... they tend to be teritorial but can travel up to 300km with caught in a strong wind

Not just human blood - almost any kind of mammal blood will do.

And it's not just the one kind of mosquito that's active all day and all night. They are different kinds of mosquitoes, which is why the malaria and dengue kind are usually active dawn and dusk, but not middle of the day.

What source do you have for that 300 km? I'd heard that the best they can do with a good tailwind is one kilometer.

[a2396]

I am not sure I would choose my place of residence based on the amount of mosquito population. The ladies in Thailand are much more attractive than those Alaskan beauties, But, Up to you. Mosquitoes in Alaska carry no disease, to my knowledge, but there are plenty of them, particularly in the bush. You could move to Antarctica - problem solved.

[IanForbes]

No mosquitos you say? How about some place like the Stuart desert in Australia? I doubt if there are any mosquitos there. Venomous snakes, spiders and scorpions might be a problem though.

[Eff1n2ret]

I noticed a curious phenomenon last weekend on our patio. About an hour after sundown the mozzies were landing on the wall below the patio lights and then swarming up around the lights, clouds of them. The geckos were having a fine old time. Then a while later, there were hardly any there at all. So do they just go back to their hidey-holes, or what?

[losworld]

Mosquitoes require standing water to lay their eggs and reproduce. So you won't find them in the desert. You won't find them in Southern California, likely Spain, northern Mexico, etc.

Worst I have ever seen for mosquitoes is northern Saskatchewan, Canada. You can hear a loud buzzing outside your tent and its the mosquitoes... unbelievable. I can only imagine the hardships some of the explorers went through being bitten all the time.

[nputman]

No way to escape them, best thing you can do is make it difficult for them to get you. I live east of Phitsanulok with Rice paddy on three sides of the house. only time the buggers get thick is in the evening just after sunset. House is fully screened and any open seams or holes they can get through are plugged. I have lived in this house for some time and have yet to see a skeeter inside. Very few around during the daylight hours. Other than Tropical ones carrying nasty illnesses Thailand does not come close to the amount and aggressiveness of the Cock Suckers in central Alaska.

[anon345535]

while it's not impossible to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes it is very difficult and takes some effort.

there is loads where i live, the bites don't really bother me but my daughter who's nearly 3 get's big lumps which unless "treated" get scratched and leave horrible little scars which for me is completely depressing as she is the most beautiful thing in the world and i feel sorry for all these thai kids who look to be scarred for life by mosquito bites.

so i have rules... lol

1: playing outside in the evening or early morning: long sleeves and trousers at all times!

2: if you're going in and out of the house after dark: DO IT QUICKLY!! they can't get inside if the doors/windows are closed

3: sleeping at night always wear pyjamas, if i see a mosquito in the house i will put socks on her too

i admit it's a pain in the arse but by doing this i can prevent my daughter from being bitten for weeks on end, when she is bitten i usually always know about it and rub menthol/eucalyptus cream onto the affected area which keeps the lump down and reduces the itchiness.my daughter makes it easy for me as she also doesn't like being bitten

now if only i could get her mother and the rest of her lazy family to do the same...

the best place to live is on the 20th floor somewhere, you can have the windows and doors open all night then...

Edited May 14, 2010 by c411um