insect repellant

I suspect that the precise locations matter here. So, which cities?

I've never encountered mosquitos in Europe, but I've read other posts here from people who have.

Do keep in mind that window screens are extraordinarily rare in Europe. As in, I've never seen one, despite spending over 18 months in Europe over the years. If by chance you are staying in some non-airconditioned lodgings and it's hot, you don't want to have to choose between sweltering with the windows closed and being attacked by mosquitoes with the windows open.

Other pertinent information: If you have to buy mosquito repellant in Europe, it will almost certainly cost more than at home, may come in a larger container than you need and want to add to the weight of your luggage, and may not be very effective since at least some countries don't allow DEET (or so I have read).

It's not in my bag when traveling to Europe, although there are times it would be handy. Bugs tend to chomp on others rather than me. For visits to tropical locations, I pack repellent with maximum deet (loves to eat synthetic clothing) concentration, but have also purchased a stick repellent named Repel at Cabela's....no need to go in my liquids bag.

Repellent wipes or towelettes with Deet are also a possibility. Amazon has lots of brands.

When I went to Italy recently I took 3-4 individually sealed mosquito repellent towelette packets. I did this because I really suffered a lot of mosquito bites in a northern Italian city a few years ago in September. Last summer I didn't need to use few packets I'd brought for my 10 days in Tuscany but I was glad to to take them and they took up no room in my carry on.

We were swimming at our timeshare pool in Tuscany. When evening started to come we were attacked big time by mosquitoes.

I got a small 1 oz bottle of Repel 100 at Target last year for our trip in October in Italy. Saw mosquitos in Venice, Florence and Rome and liked this stuff as I could spray on my clothing and bed to keep the blood suckers away and not have it directly on my skin. It contains deet and I am pretty sure you can't get deet in Europe.

Those danged biting "Midgets in Scotland" surely must be avoided.

On our last trip to Scotland we took Deep Woods Off towelettes with 25% DEET. I was vaguely worried that there might be midges, since we planned to spend some time walking in a rural area (Islay), but midges seemed not very likely in September and indeed we encountered none. What we DID encounter though, were ticks. Islay is rife with deer ticks carrying Lyme disease. How effective DEET is against ticks is unclear, but the US CDC does recommend it as a tick repellent (at least 20% strength). I like the towelettes because they are light and portable and don't need to be in my 311 bag.

You can definitely buy repellents with DEET in the UK and in Italy.

Rather than using insect repellents, you could also get a Bite Away, which takes away the itch. I got one right at the beginning of fall and only had to use it once, but it works well. They seem to be all the rage in Germany as there are a lot of copy-cats flooding the market. Kind of nice to not have to worry about smearing repellent all over your skin every day on vacation.

The film shows how it works and the plus is that is is good for bee and wasp stings too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjBm6-1HYuI

id say go prepared. we were in Venice &also slovenia (on an agriturisitmo without screens, but had minimal bites

You have not asked for itinerary guidance, but i want to advocate for my favorite stop between venice and Trieste ....aquileia...5th century mosaics and village being excavated ....UNESCO world heritage site. Lunch is available on the grounds. (pizza & sandwiches) As i recalled, we paid for parking, but there was no admission fee.....which means i was compelled to buy several things at their gift shop

I always have a few insect repellent wipes in my bag wherever I go. They weigh virtually nothing and it can be so handy to be able to pull one out when needed.

Mrs. Jo, stopping the itch is great but remember that just being bitten could expose you to mosquito-borne diseases. I don't know if European mosquitoes carry Dengue or Zika or West Nile but mosquito bites in the certain parts of the US can carry one or more of these.

No, mosquitos in Europe don't carry any of those diseases.
I like the Bite Away too because of the nasty wasps that will just randomly attack you standing on the street, or sitting at a cafe. We have had 2 bad years of wasps in Germany. Hopefully the cold this year will help with the numbers.

When we were in Venice, our hotel room had this small electrical plug in the bedside table drawer with instructions to plug it into an outlet to keep away mosquitoes. We never tried it because there were no bugs.

Just for fun, there are free telephone apps which claim to emit a high frequency sound to repel mosquitos. Just go to the google play store or the apple app store. Users claim it works. Scientists says it's bunk. Download for free and you be the judge.

Mosquito-borne diseases in Europe: an emerging public health threat
https://www.dovepress.com/mosquito-borne-diseases-in-europe-an-emerging-public-health-threat-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-RIP

Those danged biting "Midgets in Scotland" surely must be avoided.

They can only reach ankles so just wear socks? 🙂

Love the deet wipes. I always has a couple with me just in case. I do it at home now, also.