They can be bad. Different areas are affected differently - for example the towns don't seem to have too many - and along the coast and on the beaches they are few and far between.  In the countryside they are more prevelant. Mainly it is house flies not mosquitoes. Generally they seem to be at their worst in april-june then september-november. In the summer it tends to be too hot and dry for the flies, again in the winter it's too cold.

They don't seem to be any worse around a pool than anywhere else. The thing that REALLY attracts them is fish on the BBQ - much worse than meat.

The flies do tend to disappear as the evening progresses, but then you get the mosquitoes - although, again, some places have more than others.

The other thing is the 'Mosca Negres' or black flies - these tend to inhabit grassy areas/scrub and bite like hell!  They tend to come out more in the late afternoon/early evening though.

Some solutions to the above are:

1. Have a 'fly free zone' where you can eat and cook outside
2. Use Autan or another insect repellant in the day for the flies and night for the mosquitoes
3. Use Natural Honey body lotion for the mosca negre - they don't seem to understand that Autan is a repellant but they hate natural honey

Hope this doesn't put you off too much - the insects are a pain but you can work out ways of dealing with them.

Nigel