The dreaded midge season has started and numbers are expected to increase dramatically in the warm, wet weather forecast for the rest of this week.
The world’s leading expert on culicoides impunctatus – the scientific name for the Highland biting midge – said yesterday she is also expecting a bumper crop of the insects during the first half of the summer due to last winter being particularly mild.
Alison Blackwell, director of Advanced Pest Solutions of Edinburgh, analyses data from traps all over Scotland and provides an online midge forecast.
She said: “Some of our traps have started catching midges. We’ve had a few since the beginning of the month, but this is the first week we’ve had any decent catches – mainly at Glencoe in Lochaber and on Skye.
“But the warm, wet weather forecast for this week will definitely move things on more rapidly.
“And, judging by the catches we’re getting at the moment, it looks as though we will get fairly big catches in June.”
Ms Blackwell explained that midges spend late autumn and winter as larvae, living below the soil surface.
They begin to emerge as adults in May and June the following year, encouraged by lengthening days and warmer temperatures.
She said: “The mild weather during the winter is likely to mean that more of the larvae will have survived this year, so we’re all set for large numbers for the first part of the season.”
These adults then lay eggs that develop relatively quickly to give a second emergence in late July and August.
A third hatch can occur in September if the second half of the summer is particularly warm.
Ms Blackwell added that the midge forecast would be re-launched for 2014 before the end of this month.
The Met Office was yesterday forecasting mild temperatures, with misty, drizzly conditions affecting the Western Isles and west Highlands overnight last night.
The forecast for today was for a cloudy, damp start. Most places were then expected to be dry and warmer, with temperatures up to 17C. However, mist and drizzle patches were expected to linger in the west.
Tomorrow is expected to be mostly dry, bright and warm, with more cloud and a little rain at times on Saturday.