Parched hedgehogs... and a plague of vicious horseflies

WHILE you swelter on your sun-lounger, make an... erm, point of looking out for a garden visitor that may really be suffering in the heat.

Experts say hedgehogs have become the hidden victims of the summer heatwave, with young ‘hoglets’ particularly at risk of succumbing to dehydration.

At least one animal hospital says members of the public are bringing in suffering animals and warned that many may be dying without help. Some homeowners have reportedly found the animals struggling in swimming pools or ponds after falling in while trying to quench their thirst. The threat comes at a time when the number of hedgehogs in Britain has plummeted to below a million.

Staff at the Hedgehog Bottom sanctuary, in Thatcham, Berkshire, are working around the clock to look after dozens of young hedgehogs. Founder Gillian Lucraft urged homeowners to leave dishes of water around their gardens to help prevent more animals becoming dehydrated or dying.

She said: ‘We are getting baby hedgehogs handed in during the last week or so which are dehydrated because there’s no water for them. We had 27 handed in over three days and that’s just what we know about. There will be others that are dying of thirst.

‘People need to put out dishes of water that are shallow enough to drink from without them falling in and drowning.’

Meanwhile, the heatwave has triggered a huge rise in numbers of bloodsucking horseflies. A warm, wet spring, followed by a hot summer has helped numbers soar and spread from the South Coast to Scotland. Hundreds of Britons have complained online about receiving painful bites, with some need hospital treatment when bites become infected.

The hot weather – expected to continue until the end of the month – has seen tea bushes in Cornwall become more productive than those in India’s tea capital, Darjeeling.

Jonathon Jones, trading manager at the Tregothnan estate near Truro, said: ‘Our Cornish tea pluckers have been working hard to try and keep up.’