Pat and midges
 

For reasons that entirely escape me, Fodors have closed off the midge thread.

Pat, I would be happy to help. I'm a bird person myself, so have a fair bit at my fingertips. But July is not the toppest time to do birds in Scotland. I guess you know tat.

The further east you stay, the fewer probs from the midges.

And, Mucky, I KNEW you were Welsh; I'd just moentarily forgotten:(

I'm now of to do penance by supporting Wales against the Pumas at 8pm tonight, it not having been a good day for the northern hemisphere so far:(

Believe me, Sheila, people do wear midge veils. I have a photo of myself wearing one. I have also seen them being worn by the gardners at Inverewe Gardens.
Mind you, that was during a really bad midgie season. It was almost funny to watch. You'd see a cloud of them waiting outside the Inverewe shop. As each group of visitors emerged, the cloud would home in and follow them. Then a new cloud would form for the next group. They seemed to have some concept of queueing.

whoops, I can spell gardeners, honestly!

Hi Sheila,
Has the thread been removed? Why do they do that?
Anyway...heres to Wales tonight (rugby)and good luck England tomorrow (football). Wales should be in Portugal too :-(
And if England cricketers can pull their fingers out this afternoon there may be a result there too. Come on Lads !

Muck

Please tell me, What's a midge? Is it like a mosquito? Or a little fly?

A midge is a tiny dipteran (two-winged) fly, a relative of the mosquito.

I guess Fodors just can't appreciate a wharped sense of humour like mine. Give me a break!

I actually have never heard of midges, they sure sound like pesky little critters. Are they just a Europe thing?

The strongest anti midge cream is called JUNGLE FORMULA.It has the same ingredient as Autan & most of the others but is over ten times more concentrated.Its widely sold in Scotland.
Midges love me - I find that Autan hardly slows them down, but JF works.

Forgive me, Sheila, but at first glance at your title, I thought maybe you were discussing midgets.......... maybe Fodor's did, too, and got all bent out of shape!

bonniebroad-So did I !! LOL
At first glance I was wondeing why they were more prevelant in July ...LOL

They have them in Iceland too, so they are probably just native to the far North. I've never met them in England. They are tiny little insects and on a dampish calm day you can literally see clouds of them. They have a vicious bite which itches horribly and because they are so teeny, they can find bits of your anatomy you wouldn't think they could reach.
They love me and when I return from the Highlands, I look as if I am suffering from a bad case of acne.
My husband used to go camping in the Highlands as a boy and seems to have built up a certain immunity. When we are out, he will have a few attendant midgies, but I'll have a cloud of them. It's amusing for the spectators.

Have what in Iceland, midgets?





LOL, sorry, I couldn't help it :D

I NEVER comment on "what should I wear" threads......

but a midge veil??? I don't think so!

It wasn't removed last time I was here, but they took away the ability to answer it:)

Wales got beat.Scotland meet Australia in the morning and I have a bad feeling about it............

Midges are tiny swarming insects that occur across large portions of the globe. However, the particular sub-species of the midge that is found in Scotland is known as the Highland Midge, or "Culicoides Impunctatus": and it has a reputation for being more ferocious than most.

Midges occur more in the north and west of Scotland than in the south or the east. They especially like wet and uncultivated land, something those parts of Scotland have in super-abundance.

It is the female midge that bites. It can only lay its eggs after it has had a blood meal; which is where you and I come in. Midges start to become a problem in June and usually last through to August when their numbers diminish rapidly, before they finally disappear with the first real frost of autumn. The numbers of midges vary considerably from year to year, depending on the severity of the preceding winter, the amount of spring rainfall, and the temperature.

They like the cool indirect light of dawn and dusk, and dislike direct strong sunlight. They like damp conditions and dislike dry conditions. And they like still air and dislike anything above a fairly gentle breeze. All this tends to mean that midges are less common in the middle of the day than in the mornings and evenings; that they are rarer on exposed hills than in sheltered valleys; and that they can be fond of woodland and forest areas. Finally, it is worth knowing that midges prefer dark coloured clothing to light.

It is worth keeping midges in perspective. They've been a part of life in the Highlands for centuries, and are only likely to depart if the climate changes so much that the country itself becomes a radically different place. And it's the country you come to the Highlands to see. (nicked from the Undiscovered Scotland website)

It wasn't originally my headline. It was Pat's. And one second of looking at the content would ahve got rid of any doubt as to the subject matter. Mucky and I were a bit rude to each other, but in a caring way

How could you not be caringly rude to someone named Mucky :D

Sheila, would midges be the same thing as no see ums in the islands? Just like mosquitoes but so very tiny.

You are up late!
I will promise the Yankee whiskey but my thoughts are that he might consider a promise to move to the UK a better offer ~

ooooh !! I can take caringly rude, but I am a sensitive welshman, with a rugby side that are next to useless, a soccer side that can't qualify for anything and in cricket as we share within England, are probably going to struggle too. One bit of good news; Glamorgan are doing just fine.
So please don't be anything other than caringly rude, you know I love you all.


;-)

Muck

I wouldn't want to hold myself out as an expert in insects, you understand, but the name No see ums seems to mean something different from place to palce. Doing a quick hunt I see them described as sandflies.

I've met booth midges (in a big way) and sand flies on a couple fo holidays and they are NOT the same. Apart from anything else no self-respecting midge would be found on a beach.

They seem, however, to be of the same family.

It wasn't THAT late- I went to bed about 11pm; but I had to get up early to see Scotland being wiped out by Australia:(

Do NOT entice your husband to the home of whiskey if you're coming to visit us. As with those pesky islands, you'll end up on the wrong side of the Irish Sea (No "E" in the Scottish version, Scarlett)

Well, Mucky and Sheila

Bad weekend for northern hemisphere rugby. Although - the Oz vs Scotland game was better than the score showed.

Bring on the Poms! (they did soooo well against the All-Blacks!)

We have the joy of a replay in Sydney next Saturday.

Feel free to stuff the English.

Meantime, Vive la France!

As a welshman, I should support France in such situations and to a degree I do.
However as UK's sole representative maybe I should be for England too. So I remain neutral in this one.
One thin is for sure I want Russia out in the first round.
Anyway moving on to the better sport of cricket a great and delightful win against New Zealand. Well done chaps..spiffing display.


Muck

Come on Mucky - get off that fence!!

Sheila, within the last 10 minutes I have just seen an open-topped double decker bus going round George Square in Glasgow. It was festooned in red & white balloons & bore huge banners which read "Support Latvia - They're NOT England".

They were playing what I assume is the Latvian National Anthem at full blast & there were a lot of guys wearing retro-style track suits & dodgy-looking 70's long hair wigs & beards. One of them threw me a tee-shirt which says in mock-cyrillic writing "Latvia The (Quite) Brave".

No doubt this will be some sort of advertising stunt, but it certainly brought a smile to the faces of the locals (as well as completely mystified looks from some American visitors leaving the Tourist Information Office!)

Jim