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Midges can be bad in the Highlands, but now, it's mutant flesh-eating midgies we need to worry about.
I wonder if Smidge works on them 🤔
There's a documentary film being made about them.
Be afraid...
Wear a head net...
I suffered with these little winged demons at weekend whilst wildcamping. It was supposed to be wet and windy so I decided not to take the Smidge... well I started pitching in a sheltered, wooded spot away from the breeze and "Storm Betty" hadn't quite turned up yet.
What ensued was about an hour of absolute misery. Tent finally up I dived inside only to be greeted by about 50 trillion of the buggers already in there. It was a bit of an "oh shit" moment... Fortunately the rain turned up an hour or so later and they slowly started to bugger off.
There were billions and billions of the buggers though. Literally clouds of them swarming around. I must have at least 300 bites on each leg alone...
I also learned that my tent inner is mosquito proof but not necessarily midge proof. At least they could climb out of their own accord.
Lesson learned.
Seems to be endemic - probably quite bad for Scottish tourism? There's no answer though is there?!
The nice weather months people want to go on holiday, seem to be the ones with all the midges 🙁 (spoken as an outsider that loosely reads 'scotland >>> midges' every now and then)
In a fit of delusion somewhere on Mull last year, me and my adventure race teammates started discussing a horror story where a mad scientist creates a midge-tick hybrid.
If you're near trees that shed, toss that over your gear, tent, and even yourself (if stationary) and they fly over you, thinking you're the ground.
well I started pitching in a sheltered, wooded spot away from the breeze and “Storm Betty” hadn’t quite turned up yet.
thats a mistake you will not make again.
And this is why we cancelled our trip to Glencoe
We were camping in Glencoe last summer and had no problems at all.
Glen Etive however...
Northern softies. Wait for a horsefly cloud and discover real pain.
Many moons ago a bloke I worked who had a severe allergic reaction to the amount of midgie bites and had to be taken to hospital.
It was in Kielder forest, any exposed skin was literally covered in the buggers in seconds, looked like a silvery moving second skin.
Just back from Mull, only one night of mild midgie annoyance.
Trailbuilding tonight ..it isn't midges causing issues and isn't clegs, but so many flies...
bindun ; -)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Falls_(The_X-Files)
Man that gave me some sleepless nights as a kid!