Scottish Midges Forecast

Tourists and residents in Scotland regularly tune in to the weather forecast for an indication of the temperature, cloud levels, sunshine and rainfall. Now there is a new five-day forecast - on the expected level of midges in different parts of the country....

Midges are small, two-winged flying insects (a subgroup of gnats). Female biting midges (also known as no-see-ums in North America) feed on blood for protein to produce eggs. Swarms of these insects can often be found in the west of Scotland in summer. Now a system has been developed by Advanced Pest Solutions, based at Edinburgh University, which collects known densities of midge populations in various locations and combines that with weather forecasts to predict the worst affected places - similar to the pollen index of hay-fever sufferers. The forecast is refined by midge catch data provided by a network of traps at weather stations located from Shetland to the Borders.

Check for the latest forecast by clicking this link