Notes from the team.
Shorter, more personal writing than the Library, process, opinion and field notes.
France's first autochthonous chikungunya of 2026: what one local case in the Tarn means for households
Chikungunya is now transmitting locally in mainland France for the 2026 season, with a first autochthonous case confirmed in the Tarn in Santé publique France's 29 July bulletin. It is a documented, expected event for a day-biting tiger mosquito that has spread across most of the country. The illness is rarely fatal but the joint pain can be genuinely debilitating, and there is no specific treatment. The practical control is the ordinary one: stop the daytime mosquito from reaching people, and remove the small pockets of standing water where it breeds.
Read →West Nile virus is now established in Berlin: what Germany's 2025 numbers mean for the bedroom, and why this is not the tiger mosquito story
West Nile virus is endemic in Berlin. A Charite research team has shown the virus overwinters and circulates locally in the city's Culex mosquitoes, and Germany logged 14 human West Nile cases in 2025. This is a night-biting Culex risk answered by a net over the bed and a screen on the window, and it is a separate problem from the day-biting tiger mosquito headlines out of Bonn, Koln and the wider Rhineland.
Read →Why Europe's heatwaves mean mosquito season is now your whole summer
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has scaled up its warning this week: longer, hotter summers of continuously higher temperature create the conditions for mosquito-borne diseases to spread across Europe. The framing is not the single heatwave in the headlines. It is the season getting longer. That changes what a bedroom and a terrace in mainland Europe need to be, starting this summer and going forward. This piece sets out what the ECDC warning actually says, what it implies for West Nile virus, dengue and chikungunya, and the two complementary, chemical-free layers a household in Europe can put in place now: an untreated physical barrier over the bed at night, and an untreated mesh enclosure over the terrace in the evening.
Read →France's first autochthonous West Nile cases of 2026: what two local infections actually mean for households
West Nile virus is now transmitting locally in mainland France for the 2026 season, with a first autochthonous case confirmed in the Pyrénées-Orientales in mid-July and a second reported in the Bouches-du-Rhône. Both are documented, expected events for a virus that Culex mosquitoes carry along the Mediterranean each summer. The disease is mostly silent, there is no vaccine and no specific treatment, so the practical control is the same one every household already owns: keep the biting mosquito away from the people in the room.
Read →Zero-chemical mosquito protection for babies and toddlers 0 to 3: the bedroom canopy guide for European parents
From the newborn cot to the toddler bed, the safest mosquito protection for a child aged 0 to 3 in Italy, France or Germany is the same thing every paediatric and public-health body recommends: an untreated fine-mesh net over the sleep space, with no chemistry on the skin or in the air. Repellents become age-permitted at low concentration from two months, but the child's own bedroom stays the place for the zero-chemical barrier. This guide sets out the age ladder, why the untreated bedroom canopy is the default across the whole 0 to 3 band, and the practical setup for the 2026 season.
Read →Do mosquito sprays still work? An honest guide to insecticide resistance
Sprays and foggers can still kill mosquitoes, but in a growing number of places the mosquitoes now survive doses that once killed them. This explainer sets out what insecticide resistance actually is, what a new measurement of it found, and why layered, non-chemical prevention is the durable answer.
Read →Is my region becoming mosquito country? What receptivity really means
Receptivity means a region has the mosquito, climate and ecology that could support local transmission. It does not mean an outbreak has begun. This explainer separates vector presence from disease risk, shows the four conditions transmission needs, and sets out the practical steps households can control.
Read →Summer 2026 baby mosquito protection: the under-6-months rule, and what parents do this week
For a baby under six months, every paediatric and public-health body that has published on the question says the same thing: do not put repellent on the skin, and put a fine-mesh untreated net over the cot, pram and sleep space. The Asian tiger mosquito season across southern Europe is now long, the 2025 surveillance data confirm autochthonous transmission in new departments, and a 2026 summer action guide for parents of a young infant is mostly a question of getting the right net, getting the fit right, and cutting breeding sites around the house. This is the practical guide for that work.
Read →Your outdoor room, mosquito-free: terrace gazebo vs. fixed screen installation
A European household protecting a 4 × 4 m terrace or gazebo from Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens in 2026 is choosing between two architectures: a fixed frame screen on every window and door, measured and installed by a tradesperson, or a free-standing untreated mesh gazebo that drops over the whole seating area. The price band for a professionally measured, custom-made, retrofitted frame screen sits at roughly 200 EUR per window in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the Benelux. The Mosticare Terrazza TE-UNO covers a complete 4 × 4 m outdoor room for 150 EUR as a single product. The right answer depends on what the household actually wants to protect: the open window, the seating area, or both.
Read →How to protect yourself from West Nile virus mosquito bites: the household physical-barrier layer, with truthful claims about nets, screens, treated products, and repellents
There is no human vaccine against West Nile virus and no specific antiviral. The protection layer sits in the household, not the clinic. This article is the practical guide to the four-part barrier that works: a net over the bed, screens on the windows, source reduction around the house, and age-appropriate repellent use at dusk. Every claim is sourced; every product class is treated separately.
Read →West Nile virus in Europe 2026: what you need to know
West Nile virus is now endemic in southern and southeast Europe, and the 2026 ECDC surveillance shows it has widened to five countries with eleven affected areas as of 8 July. This is the evergreen hub on the disease, the vector, the 2026 season, and the protection layer every household in the affected region has under its own control.
Read →West Nile virus in Greece 2026: what households in the affected regions need to know
Greece is a first-time 2026 entry on the ECDC West Nile virus weekly platform, with one affected area recorded as of 8 July. The country has had locally acquired human cases every year since the 2010 Central Macedonia outbreak, and the 2018 Athens-centred outbreak was the largest ever recorded in Greece. This landing covers the 2026 signal, the historical Greek geography, the household protection layer, and the EODY reporting infrastructure that a Greek household should know about.
Read →