BackgroundAedes koreicusis a mosquito species native to East Asia which has recently invaded several countries in Europe. In Italy, this mosquito was first detected in the North-East in 2011 and is now widely distributed in the entire northern part of the country. The development of specific genetic markers, such as microsatellites, is necessary to uncover the dispersal routes of this mosquito from its native areas and, eventually, to plan future control interventions.MethodsAvailable raw sequences of genomic DNA ofAe. koreicuswere screened in silico using BLASTn to identify possible microsatellite-containing sequences. Specific primer pairs were then designed, and their efficiency was determined through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on 32 individuals ofAe. koreicuscollected in Italy. PCR conditions were optimised in three multiplex reactions. Genotyping of individual mosquitoes was performed on both single and multiplex PCR reactions. Finally, analysis of intra-population variation was performed to assess the level of polymorphism of the markers.ResultsMosquito genotyping provided consistent results in both single and multiplex reactions. Out of the 31 microsatellite markers identified in theAe. koreicusgenome raw sequences, 11 were polymorphic in the examined mosquito samples.ConclusionsThe results show that the 11 microsatellite markers developed here hold potential for investigating the genetic structure ofAe. koreicuspopulations. These markers could thus represent a novel and useful tool to infer the routes of invasion of this mosquito species into Europe and other non-native areas.Graphical AbstractSupplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13071-023-05823-z.