Get ready to be bugged: Midges stage comeback

Wildlife: After long winter, Scotland’s biting insects are ready to turn out in force

It is the biting beastie from the eastie. For the first hatches of midges have been reported – but they are unseasonally late because of the recent cold prevailing easterly weather.

Ahead of the launch of this season’s official midge forecast this weekend, expert Dr Alison Blackwell said the first reports of early midges were logged on Saturday.

“The first emergers are usually a few weeks earlier than now, but the weather has affected midges, just like other wildlife,” she said.

“And also unusually the first reports have come from the east coast, including Dundee of all places. People are saying they are getting bitten there.

“We expect the first big hatch to occur at the end of the month and with it warming up we expect it to be big.”

The news will not be greeted with joy by the country’s tourist operators. The Scottish tourism industry is estimated to lose about £286 million a year because of the voracious and swarming insects.

A previous study also found that many tourists said they would not return to Scotland at the same time of year because of midges.

Last year Dr Blackwell and her team calculated the total number of midges in the Highlands and Islands at 139 billion.

Half of them were females – only the female midge bites – but not every one of them makes it to ‘biting point.’

So the number of midges seeking a “blood meal” over the summer are around 21 billion.

“They are pretty adaptable in surviving all kinds of conditions as we have seen. They know how to survive. They’ve done it for thousands of years. They survived the last Ice Age after all,” said Dr Blackwell.