Eli5: Why is there no malaria in Italy despite having so many mosquitos

Question

I’m in Italy currently and did not need to take any malaria tablets to come here. However I’m being assaulted by mosquitoes since coming here and after Googling I found malaria was eradicated in the 1960’s but can’t find out how exactly

In: 10

Answer 1

The short version: From the 1930s to the 1050s, a lot of DDT was sprayed, a lot of other insecticides, and a lot of swampland was cleared out.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8168761/

Here’s a link from the NIH that tells you the same thing, but with big words and more detail.
There are still several hundred cases of malaria a year in Italy but they’re all imported.