Midges are found in every Continent, except Antartica, and they can climb as high as 15,000 feet on Mount Everest.

The species is up to 100 million years old, and are suspected of once being able to bite through the skin of a dinosaur.

But in the West coast of Scotland last year, their population dropped quite dramatically. This was because the Summer was hot and dry. This was such a relief to the locals because the Scottish West Coast midgie is amongst the most vigorous of them all.

This year the same thing might happen again. With a very warm dry start to April and May, and with the breeding population already reduced, their numbers could fall.

That is a relief to every walker and climber, and to every forester.

Midges love darkness - forests. They love the early morning and evening. They love the carbon dioxide given out by human breath. They hate strong winds.

It is only the female midge of one kind which bites through several layers of clothing - but boy, does she bite.

The advice to walkers is to wear long sleeves, and dark clothing, to move around the middle of the day and pick windy days for outings.

Early last year the midge population was set to increase according to experts because we had experienced a wet winter. But scientists put in place a number of machines to destroy midges. They therefore got a count on the numbers in different regions. To their surprise the numbers fell.

Midge populations fell a lot because of low breeding activity due to the unexpected warm dry weather.

If this is the pattern for Summers in the future, this could be useful for tourists and outdoor workers alike.

But we'll not kill them off. They've survived massive volcanos, great ice sheets a mile thick and are many times older than most animal species.

They'll have their day again.

John Winkler

www.bayviewkentallen.co.uk