Mosquitos: Florida vs Alaska. Which State is Worse?
Mosquitos are the state bird of Alaska, so goes the joke. And Mosquitos are no laughing matter in Alaska.
They are thick. They are everywhere. They are annoying AF.
Mosquito Gear
I have all the proper outdoor clothes and gear for these pesky critters:
- Long sleeve fishing shirts I use in Florida and thee Everglades
- Convertible pants (zippies that turn into shorts) to keep them away from the legs
- Hats and buffs
- Bug spray
But did they live up to their hype?
In preparation for my trip to Alaska, many people “warned” me about the mosquitos. As I live in South Florida, and spend a lot of time in the Everglades, I am no stranger to mosquito danger and I’m rarely if ever annoyed by them, and never use any spray against them, as I don’t feel I need to spray up, even in the Everglades.
Alaska Mosquitos
Armed with all this knowledge and gear, I even bought “local” mosquito spray at an outfitters in Anchorage, and a mosquito head net.
I did encounter thick mosquitos in several places in Alaska. And they were annoying. Most notably out on the Chena river and in a few areas in the arctic, along the Dalton Highway and nearby areas in Coldfoot and Wiseman.
For the most part I did not use any spray, only two or three times, and never did need the head net.
Mosquito Verdict
While Florida mosquitos are annoying and some carry diseases they are not as thick or aggressive as the massive swarms of wild mosquitos in Alaska’s tens of thousands of little lakes and ponds formed by the snow melt-off or thawing permafrost.
Winner: Alaska Mosquitos
