2018 Midge & tick watch

[denfinella]

It's probably a bit early in the year for midges, but I picked up my first tick of the season yesterday near Tyndrum (on the 3-mile "Sheep walk" at Auchtertyre!). Annoyingly I didn't even think to check for ticks after the walk, given how short it was and the time of year, and didn't notice it until this morning. So be warned, they're back

So I thought I'd kick off the annual midge / tick report thread for the 2018 season... go!

[Ben Nachie]

We were in the Cairngorms last weekend and there were a handful of midges at the Allt Mòr car park. They weren't biting (yet).

[DarrenJeffrey]

Up Loch an Eilein Friday past and there was a few "clouds" of them kicking about. Same as above, not biting!

[Mal Grey]

A number of ticks on our group, wild camping in Assynt the week before last. Fortunately all but one found before they bit. This despite the near freezing temperatures!

[jmarkb]

Midges active at this time of year are almost certainly non-biting species.

[simcc]

Midges active at this time of year are almost certainly non-biting species.

What!? You mean the males!

[Sgurr]

Friend got tick on Mull last weekend.

[Coop]

Was on A' Ghlas Bheinn today and crossed the "ford" and they were there waiting - but not biting

For " ford " please read as " raging torrent!!!

[Caberfeidh]

What about cleggs? They're high up on my list of undesirable bitey creatures. Up there with vampires, werewolves and sabre-toothed weasels.

[paulG2]

Currently at Loch Morlich camping. A few midges but not biting Yet 😊.

[KatTai]

One of my dogs picked up a tick earlier this month, probably somewhere around Angus. Latest tick for the last few years though last year I think it was February the first tick of the year!

[denfinella]

What about cleggs? They're high up on my list of undesirable bitey creatures. Up there with vampires, werewolves and sabre-toothed weasels.

Good point - unfortunately I can't change the thread title now! Sorry.

Sounds like tick season starts earlier than I realised, but good to hear the midges aren't biting (yet).

[Mal Grey]

Sounds like tick season starts earlier than I realised, but good to hear the midges aren't biting (yet).

We've regularly found ticks at Easter. Seems to me that unless they're actually frozen in, the buggers are there all the time, if in lower numbers.

My favourite was when, on a paddling trip at Easter on Loch Shiel, my mate turned his drysuit inside out and laid it out to dry on some nice flattened grass. Flattened by deer.....as I'd already pointed out....he was picking them off himself for the next 5 days and probably infested London when he went home and hung it in the garden.

[KatTai]

What about cleggs? They're high up on my list of undesirable bitey creatures. Up there with vampires, werewolves and sabre-toothed weasels.

Good point - unfortunately I can't change the thread title now! Sorry.

Sounds like tick season starts earlier than I realised, but good to hear the midges aren't biting (yet).

My dogs have had their last tick in November and first in February so the tick-free season can be very short. Unfortunately.

[Caberfeidh]

The coldness of the winter does not seem to affect them at all. They survive in the frozen ground, in suspended animation, to rise and torment the world again when Beelzebub himself ordains it thus. The terrible winters about ten years ago had no effect on them, despite it being well below zero for months on end.The only thing that affects them seems to be drought. In the long hot summers of 1976 and '77 the highlands were almost devoid of midgies, as their breeding waters had dried up. Unfortunately they resurrected themselves quickly. We need to genetically modify trout by cross-breeding them with flying fish so the trout can fly through the air and eat the little buggers on the wing. Imagine Rannoch Moor covered with flocks of flying trout flapping around with their mouths open, sieving midgies out of the air like basking sharks sieving plankton. It would be like those flocks of birds over the Wash, murmurating and swarming all over the place. It is our only hope.