{"id":17795,"date":"2025-04-13T23:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/17795\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T23:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:43:14","slug":"urgent-warning-for-scotland-midge-invasion-after-millions-of-flesh-biting-beasties-hatch-weeks-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/17795\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent warning for Scotland midge invasion after millions of flesh-biting beasties hatch weeks early"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OUTDOOR lovers have been warned to brace for an Easter invasion of midges.<\/p>\n<p>Bug experts predicted an earlier influx of the biting beasties due to the warmer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/spring\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bug expert Jay Hutchison of APS Biocontrol examining insect specimens.\" height=\"416\" width=\"500\" data-credit=\"Supplied\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bug-expert-jay-hutchison-aps-985504932.jpg\" data-caption=\"Bug expert Jay Hutchison of APS Biocontrol has predicted a midge influx\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bug-expert-jay-hutchison-aps-985504932.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>Bug expert Jay Hutchison of APS Biocontrol has predicted a midge influxCredit: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Insect scientist Jay Hutchison told how repellent spray sales are already \u201cramping up\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cPeople living up north are starting to anticipate the midges will come quite soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast week we were getting up to 20\u00b0C degrees.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/weather\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">weather<\/a>, coupled with any rain \u2014 even a sprinkling \u2014 will make midges come out earlier than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His APS Biocontrol firm runs the Scottish Midge Forecast using weather station data.<\/p>\n<p>And He reckons this spring has been 1\u00b0C hotter than in 2024, with individual days as much as 4\u00b0C higher.<\/p>\n<p>The entomologist added: \u201cEaster would normally be a bit early for midges but we could see them come out by then.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe start of the season is normally around May. <\/p>\n<p>With this weather, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it was before the end of April.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are 19 species of the bloodsuckers that are notoriously hard to shoo away and leave painful marks on the skin.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thescottishsun.co.uk\/topic\/scotland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scotland<\/a> has more than 35 species of midge but the Highland type is the most ferocious.<\/p>\n<p>The worst conditions are normally in mid-June.<\/p>\n<p>There is another peak in August and a possible outbreak in the autumn.<\/p>\n<p>One square metre can contain about 500,000 of the tiny pests.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"2A1YR2W hitting a nuisance bug while in the woods\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Alamy\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/msemail_monday_heads__1_jpg-JS986023364.jpg\" data-caption=\"Scotland faces a midge invasion after millions of flesh-biting beasties hatch early\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/msemail_monday_heads__1_jpg-JS986023364.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>Scotland faces a midge invasion after millions of flesh-biting beasties hatch earlyCredit: Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OUTDOOR lovers have been warned to brace for an Easter invasion of midges. Bug experts predicted an earlier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,5119,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-17795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-section-newsscottish-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114333312999736103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}