The UK's No.1 Midge Repellent
Researchers from the University of Glasgow have discovered previously unknown viruses in the Scottish midge population around Loch Lomond. These viruses are not a public health concern but show the potential for midges to transmit diseases to animals, such as birds and cattle, in the UK and Europe. It was only a few years ago …
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You’ll be glad to know that it’s nearing the end of the midge season! Numbers are starting to decline around the country, with fewer and fewer reports coming into us of midge activity. This means that the Midge Forecast is soon to shut down for the season. It’s at this stage that females will start …
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New estimates suggest that cases of Lyme disease around the UK are possibly three times higher than was previously thought. This is according to a new paper published in BMJ Open. This research found that there could be over 8000 cases of Lyme disease in the UK by the end of 2019. This is compared …
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Smidge will be on a road trip around Scotland from Monday next week (15th -19th July). If you are a small business (B&B, local shop etc.) and would like to try Smidge for your customers for the first time, we do great starter packs with a mix & match, or products or for larger businesses …
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The 2019 midge season starting with a bang in the middle of May, a couple of weeks earlier than we would normally see. The first generation quickly peaked but the onset of the unusually cool, unsettled weather in June meant that we didn’t see the peak populations that we would see in a normal year. …
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First off, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Jay and I’m just getting started here at Smidge as a new research assistant/assistant accounts manager (a bit of science and a bit of business!). I have a background in midge and mosquito behaviour research going back to my undergraduate years. I’m not all that new to …
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The relatively mild winter and warm spring has seen the first midges appearing a good week earlier than we would normally expect, with “bitings” recorded from Lochgilphead all the way up to Wick. The Scottish Midge Forecast has been relaunched this week, using algorithms based on our knowledge of midge population biology, weather-forecast data …
Read more2018 has seen the slowest start to the Scottish midge season since 2015, when we had very similar cool weather in April and May, which delayed the first emergence of the midges from their overwintering habitat as larvae just below the soil surface. The same pattern seems to be occurring in 2018 but over the …
Read moreWith a cool start to the year, it looks like we are unlikely to see an early start to the midge season, as in 2017 when emergence was high in early-mid May, resulting in bumper numbers of midges by the end of the month. Average temperatures during March and April 2018 have been around 3 …
Read moreThe 2017 midge season is well into the first generation, with the past 4-5 weeks seeing record numbers of midges across much of the western half of Scotland. Warm, showery weather has encouraged both their emergence and survival, giving us a large population of blood-thirsty female midges, whose eggs will hatch to give a second …
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