UKH

Superb programme on midges on bbc Scotland,beware if you are ginger one of the  answers

In reply to SATTY:

News story tonight on BBC Scotlandshire - volunteers wanted to test new repellent. 8 hour shift being eaten by midges for £100.

Nope - me neither.

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:

I think one would have to be living in extreme poverty to consider that offer.

In reply to SATTY:

Stanage was a nightmare yesterday afternoon, absolutely unbearable.

£100 to suffer that.. no thanks!

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:

Presumably they'd usually know a lot sooner whether they're repelled or not. Once sufficiently munched, I can't see what leaving them to pick at your bones for the remainder of the time would achieve!

In reply to john arran:

The horror is that you get one arm possibly protected and the other is the control.  

In reply to SATTY: last week we had three days camping near Newton Stewart ( Galloway hills )  as the kids wanted  to have a couple of days biking at kiroughtree. My plan was that if the midges were at all bothersome we would come home . Didn’t get bothered once , including sorting a few mechanicals in the forest . 

In reply to JimR:

It really was! We bailed after 3 routes! 

In reply to Tom Guitarist:

One route was enough for us!

In reply to SATTY:

I clicked on this thinking it was yet another "Will there be midges in Scotland this summer??" thread (Argh!!!!).

But thankfully not, cheers for that I'll look it up and have a watch

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:

Sounds like being paid for how I spend most of my weekends 

In reply to SATTY:

What do the little bas"£%ds eat when pasty southern aren't around?

In reply to TomYoung:

Have a memory from decades ago when climbing on a summer evening when it went from ok to being unbearable in a few seconds. Halfway up a route, I managed in panic to wipe a contact lens out of my eye and decided to lower off on my last bit of pro. As I lowered down and stripped the rest of the gear I looked both ways only to see about ten other people doing the same. Everyone just grapped their gear and ran for their cars, gear dangling from harnesses. I think there must have been quite a lot of crag swag next day.

In reply to TomYoung:

Have a memory from decades ago when climbing at Stanage on a summer evening when it went from ok to being unbearable in a few seconds. Halfway up a route, I managed in panic to wipe a contact lens out of my eye and decided to lower off on my last bit of pro. As I lowered down and stripped the rest of the gear I looked both ways only to see about ten other people doing the same. Everyone just grapped their gear and ran for their cars, gear dangling from harnesses. I think there must have been quite a lot of crag swag next day.

In reply to GrahamD:

I want to know what the ecological ramifications would be if midges and mosquitos were eradicated. 

Are they really needed? Really?

In reply to montyjohn:

Im going to guess effects on spiders, insects, reptiles etc which eat them and so on up the food chain.

In reply to SATTY:

This might be an entertaining watch too, when it comes out!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1d7m4e5y9zo

In reply to Welsh Kate:

I could suggest a few strap lines for that. 'In Glen Tilt No-one can Hear You Scream' still makes my blood run cold.

In reply to SATTY:

One of those 'naked & afraid' type programmes featured midges, IIRC... <shudders>

In reply to MG:

In that case can someone set up a breeding programme to increase the number of the relevant spiders, insects, reptiles, etc.. PLEASE.

In reply to montyjohn:

I recall some months ago on a particularly midge infested day seeing huge numbers of house martins about. Naturally I enthusiastically cheered them on.

In reply to montyjohn: In terms of the flying and biting f@ckers, not a lot would change by way of ecological impact. Where the pain (ha ha - the pain)  would be felt is in the larval cycle as the wriggly things help breakdown leaf matter, though to what extent I don’t know.

Seems like as with every irritating life form, they have purpose. 

In reply to JimR:

We had four days on crags near Gairloch last week with no midge problems.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

When I lived in Glencoe a small group of us, mostly young men, (a couple of women joined in but most were sufficiently mature) engaged in an utterly stupid mind-over-matter contest which involved going out to "The Swamp" (now the SSSI woodland just down from the Clachaig) on a still humid summer's night and stripping to our underpants and standing still. Last one to run away was the winner, which I am not entirely proud to say was always me. Mal Duff and his 'feel no pain' ideas had a lot to answer for.

I'd take up the Smidge offer for £100 per bite, nothing less.

In reply to Cog:

I have to admit that I'm  beginning to acquire a wee bit of a midge complex. I've been out regularly all summer. Southern Highlands, Central Highlands, NW Highlands and the Cairngorms and have been completely ignored by the Heilan midge. Ma midge head net has gone mouldy through neglect.  Having thrashed through chest high bracken I've even managed to repel the dreaded tick....wtf is wrong wi me? 

In reply to GrahamD:

Pastier northern…?

In reply to BRILLBRUM:

There's some new tech for controlling weeds on farms that uses AI on a mobile rig to identify weeds and destroy them with lasers.

It's quite satisfying to watch.

The tech exists, it just needs training to identify midges and downsized to make it portable.

In reply to 65:

IIRC midges have been used as a particularly unpleasant means of execution with the victim tied up naked and left exposed to them. Might just be a myth or in a work of fiction.

In reply to oldie:

I don't know about execution but it was used as a method of torturer, I'd have talked. 

In reply to oldie:

Sounds like a myth. I heard years ago of a similar punishment for adulterous men in Kinlochewe but afaik there's no evidence for it. I'm sure it's happened at the odd out of control stag weekend though.

In reply to Joak:

Me too, ,Joak . Nae problems in the  northwest this year. Mind you, I'm thinking about training  them to eat "Motorhomes"! ,using Para Handy's story about the "mudges"as inspiration

In reply to The Watch of Barrisdale:

Haha, guid yin. If your training programme works oot I for one will nominate you furra Nobel Peace Prize....P.S. I've got a plan B (B for Bazooka ). 🙂 

In reply to Cog:

After the first wave in May, we've had almost no midges for over a month, even in places that would usually be hell holes (Kinlochleven, Red Squirrel, Huntleys Polldubh on a still day). They've just started coming back to normal levels in the last few weeks.. 

In reply to timparkin:

So would I be safe from a midge hell, if I came up to the southern Cairngorms this weekend? Or are they just getting wound up ready to eat up any fool venturing out on the hills within minutes?

In reply to timparkin:

I find that often happens, bad at the start and end of the summer, fine in-between.

In reply to Cog:

Yes there are definitely waves of them usually but I've never known them to disappear completely 

In reply to veteye:

I think it's nearly back to normal now, sadly

In reply to 65:

That really does sound like a Mal Duff idea!

In reply to Guy:

It was my idea (we've all been young and daft) but very much inspired by him. He was impressed when I told him about it but he oddly declined when I invited him to join us in the summer.