March 20, 2025, 3:46 pm | Read time: 3 minutes

Orbetello is a popular vacation resort in Tuscany and is known for its special location on a headland that connects it to the Monte Argentario peninsula. However, the idyll of the pretty lagoon town is currently being overshadowed — and you could almost mean that literally: millions of mosquitoes have been making life difficult for the residents for weeks. The desperation is so great that a call for help has already been launched via an online petition.

The reason for the call for help is a mosquito plague of extreme proportions, which is having a devastating impact on the locals of Orbetello. Specifically, it concerns a type of non-biting midges, known as chironomids, which swarm through the lagoon in droves and invade houses. “This is a portion of the midges I collected outside the patio door. Not to mention what’s sitting on the walls,” writes one resident under an angry post on Facebook.

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“We Can’t Lead Our Normal Lives”

The effects of the mosquito plague in Orbetello seem dramatic: “We can’t lead our normal lives,” writes Alessio Segoni, the initiator of the petition, on change.org. He continues: “We can’t go for a walk in the fresh air.
We can’t open our windows. We are isolated in our homes as if it were the height of the Covid pandemic.
Our children go to school (…) and breathe air full of mosquitoes.”

In addition to the inconvenience caused by the insects, Segoni points out another problem: “Additionally, when spiders consume the dead midges, they exhibit abnormal behavior.”

Addressing the region, Segoni writes: “This infestation is not a simple nuisance, but the result of ineffective management of the lagoon. We demand that a state of emergency be declared and that the region and all institutions involved (including the Ministry of the Environment) intervene with immediate measures to eliminate the mosquito infestation in the Orbetello lagoon without delay.”

Mayor Announces Help

Meanwhile, the mayor of Orbetello has announced comprehensive measures on Facebook to address the midge infestation. The municipality will allocate an unprecedented sum of 300,000 euros and establish a permanent roundtable for discussion. In addition, insect larvae in the lagoon have been combated with appropriate means for several days, the municipality announced on Platform X.

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Not the First Mosquito Plague in Orbetello

Incidentally, this is not the first mosquito plague in Orbetello. In August 2022, in the middle of the high season, the small vacation resort was also exposed to an extreme invasion of mosquitoes. However, as with the current infestation, the insects were not mosquitoes but non-biting midges. However, according to Il Messaggero, their hairy antennae can cause allergic reactions if they come into contact with the skin.

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The exact reasons for the mosquito invasion are not known. However, according to Il Messaggero, one factor could be the increasing heatwaves in recent years. It is assumed that this has led to a deterioration of the local ecosystem. In particular, the excessive enrichment of the water with nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrates has led to a decline in natural enemies such as fish and amphibians. As these normally feed on the larvae of the insects, the plague was able to spread unhindered.