The Scottish Midge Forecast says a cool May followed by a warmer period has boosted numbers.
The tiny biting insects thrive in wet and warm conditions and usually have two hatchings during the Scottish summer.but Dr Blackwell said there had been sufficient humidity this year to help them survive.
Dr Blackwell added: "We would normally expect the first peak of adults in the last week of May, first week of June. "The ones emerging now will lay eggs and then in six weeks' time we will have a second emergence," Dr Blackwell said. Dr Blackwell said this was because the insects breed in damp, peaty soil which naturally occurs in the western half of the country."The winters are less cold usually than the east coast so you get a greater survival rate of the overwinter larvae as well."Dr Blackwell, director of APS Biocontrol in Dundee which runs the Scottish Midge Forecast, said midge numbers were predicted through modelling and some live data.
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