The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
‘Biting point’: Expert warns 21 billion midges coming this way.
Numbers expected to be huge after mild winter weather
A Dundee expert has warned the country could be plagued by a swarm of 21 billion midges this year.
The onslaught of bugs is due to start in the coming weeks, with numbers likely to soar after mild weather failed to kill off midge larvae living under countryside soil.
The official Scottish Midge Forecast has estimated 139bn midges will blight the country this year. Of this number, the amount looking for dinner could be 21bn.
Only the female insects bite, however not all of them make it to “biting point”.
Midge expert Alison Blackwell, who runs the forecast and is director of Dundee’s APS Biocontrol, said this figure for hungry bugs “could double” if weather was particularly warm.
However it could also be a lot less if the mercury dropped in the coming weeks.
Ms Blackwell said: “Where that number comes from is we did an estimate of what the midge population could be this year based on potential breeding ground area.
“I don’t think 21 billion is an overestimate. That could be the number of midges running around trying to bite people.
“However there could be a dry, windy spell which kills off more than anticipated. Or it could be warm and there could be more.”
She said the figures were based upon “what we know about the reproductive routes of midges”. There are usually two generations of the insects every year – half male and half female.
Milder weather, such as that experienced in the 2016-17 winter, can also lead to higher populations.
Ms Blackwell added: “In the ground there is a huge population of midges waiting to emerge. Warm weather encourages them to start turning into adults.
“They need a bit of humidity as well. If we get some rain between now and the end of the month we could be looking at a big first emergence.”
Midges usually arrive in late May or early June.
Ms Blackwell’s study focused on a huge land mass in the Highlands and Islands, estimating there will be 44.8 million of the bugs per resident of the region.