Take cover! 45m midges per person
FOR anyone who has ever been caught in a thick swarm of midges, it will come as no surprise.
Researchers have worked out there are 45 million of the tiny biting insects for every man, woman and child in the Highlands.
For the first time, experts have calculated the population of our Highland midge, or culicoides impunctatus.
Overall, estimates suggest there are 139 billion midges in the Highlands and Islands. Half are females – only the females bite – of whom 21 billion are now at maturity and seeking blood. Based on a population in the Highlands of 466,000, that equates to roughly 44.8 million for every resident. The figures have been prepared by midge expert Dr Alison Blackwell, who produces the Scottish Midge Forecast and is director of Dundee-based APS Biocontrol, maker of midge repellent Smidge. She said: ‘There are two generations of midges each season, spaced about six weeks apart, starting in mid to late May.’
Dr Blackwell warned that this is likely to be a bumper summer for midges. She said: ‘The mild winter will have promoted survival of the overwintering larvae and the current warm weather – in the West at least – will be encouraging the first midges to emerge. There are some sightings already.
‘It has been very dry, though, which midges do not like. Some rain is forecast for next week, so I’d predict we’ll see the first significant numbers of midges during the final ten days of May.’