Expert predicts ‘perfect swarm’ of midges.

Perfect conditions bring dire forecast of midge mayhem

A Dundee boffin has warned of a “perfect swarm” of midges ravaging Scotland this summer.

Ahead of the launch of the season’s Scottish Midge Forecast, Dr Alison Blackwell has predicted the insects will plague the country in the record numbers this year.

The grim forecast comes after a record year for midges in 2014.

In parts of the Highlands the blood sucking swarm was more than three times up last year.

“All the ingredients are there for another bumper year. The temperatures are forecast to warm up as the first hatch is due to emerge in a couple of weeks and it has been a relatively mild winter,” said Dr Blackwell.

“We expect midges to be out in force this season. The next two weeks are critical. If the temperatures heat up as predicted it is going to be a good year for the midges – or a bad one – depending on your point of view.

“With the right conditions it could well be another record year.”

Dr Blackwell, director of Dundeebased APS Biocontrol Ltd, runs the Scottish Midge Forecast, which has numbered warnings up to level five – its highest nuisance rating – for the midgeprone areas of the country.

“The mild winter meant that more of the larvae survived into this year, so all it needs is the wet and warm weather to come at the right time for them,” said Dr Blackwell.

The Scottish tourism industry is estimated to lose about £286 million a year because of the voracious and swarming insects.

The three main midge counting traps – in Wester Ross, Argyll and Galloway Hills – between them recorded over 800,000 midges in May 2014 when they barely caught a couple of hundred in the same month the previous year.

The flying midge lives for between two days and two weeks depending on weather conditions.