There is a moment every Scottish summer when a perfect day goes wrong. The light is going gold over the loch, somebody opens the flask, and then the air fills with a fine grey haze that gets in your eyes, your hair and your tea. Midges are the toll you pay for some of the best places in the country. They are not, though, unbeatable. Understand what they want, and you can plan around them instead of retreating indoors.
What You Are Actually Up Against
The culprit is the Highland biting midge, Culicoides impunctatus, a creature about the size of a speck of pepper. Only the females bite. They need the protein in blood to develop their eggs, which is small comfort when you are standing in a cloud of them. The males are harmless and spend their time on nectar.
Unlike mosquitoes, midges do not whine around your ears. They land quietly, often in numbers, and the itch turns up hours later. They are weak fliers and rarely travel more than a few hundred metres from the damp soil, bog and rotting vegetation where they breed, which is why one side of a glen can be unbearable while the other is fine. They are irritating rather than dangerous; Scottish midges are not known to pass disease to people. How badly you react is down to you, and some folk barely notice them.
The Season: May to September, With Two Peaks
The midge year begins when the ground warms up, usually around mid-May in the west and a little later further north and inland. Numbers build through late May and June, ease off in the drier weeks of high summer, then climb again in late July and August as a second generation emerges. By September the worst is past, though a mild, damp autumn day can still produce a batch, and you will occasionally meet them into October.
The awkward truth is that the season overlaps almost exactly with the best of the Scottish outdoors: long evenings, hill days, campsites, barbecues that run past ten o'clock. You are not going to avoid them by waiting for a better month.
The Weather They Love, and the Three Things They Hate
Midges thrive in still, humid, overcast conditions. Dawn and dusk are peak hours, especially on a close evening after rain. Light drizzle does not put them off at all; they simply tuck into the vegetation and reappear the moment it stops.
What stops them is simpler:
- Wind. Anything stronger than a light breeze, roughly five miles an hour and up, keeps them grounded. This is the single most useful fact in this article.
- Hot, dry, bright afternoons. Strong sun and low humidity thin them out fast.
- Cold. Below about ten degrees they become sluggish and largely harmless.
So a breezy, sunny morning on a hill is a different world from a still, muggy evening in a sheltered glen. Same county, same week, entirely different experience.
Where They Are Wicked, and Where They Are Not
The west coast is midge country: Argyll, Lochaber, Skye, Wester Ross, the Great Glen, anywhere damp and sheltered with birch, pine or bog nearby. Glen floors, loch shores, the lee side of a hill and the flat ground beside a burn are the classic trouble spots. Camp in a hollow next to water and you have booked yourself a long night.
Head east and things improve. The drier, breezier coasts of Fife, Angus and Aberdeenshire see far fewer of them. So do exposed ridges and high tops, open moorland with a decent airflow, and any beach with a sea breeze running across it. It is entirely possible to be eaten alive two hundred metres inland and completely untroubled on the sand. When you are choosing a campsite or a picnic spot, choose exposure over shelter every time in midge season.
Repellents: What Is Worth Carrying
- A head net. The most effective and least glamorous item you can own. Buy one made for midges rather than mosquitoes, since the mesh needs to be fine. Keep it in your pocket, not in the bottom of your pack.
- Repellent for skin. Products based on picaridin (sometimes sold as icaridin) or DEET are the ones most people rely on. Follow the label, reapply as directed, and test on a small patch first. Keep it away from eyes, lips and broken skin, and do not put it on children's hands. If you are pregnant, or you have sensitive skin or a medical condition, ask a pharmacist or your GP before using anything.
- Treated clothing. Outer layers treated with permethrin products, according to the manufacturer's instructions, add another barrier. Never apply these to skin.
- Traditional remedies. Bog myrtle, citronella, garlic and vitamin B are popular and harmless enough, but treat them as extras rather than substitutes.
- Coils, sticks and candles. Useful around a campsite table outdoors or in a well-ventilated space. Keep them away from food and children.
The Scottish Midge Forecast publishes a daily map through the season, and it is worth a look before you commit to a long drive west. Pair it with a wind forecast and you have most of what you need.
Clothing and Kit That Makes a Difference
Coverage beats chemistry. A few practical habits do more than any spray:
- Long sleeves and trousers, tucked in. Ankles and wrists are where they find the gap, so tuck trousers into socks or pull on gaiters.
- Light colours. Midges are drawn to dark clothing, and to strong scents, so leave the heavy perfume at home.
- Layers you can ventilate. A light windproof shell over a base layer lets you cover up without cooking.
- A midge jacket or a wide-brimmed hat with a net attached for the worst evenings.
- A tent with fine mesh on the inner, and a spare net for sitting in the doorway. Campervan owners should think about screen panels.
- Keep food and drink covered, and take antihistamine cream or a cold compress for the bites you do collect. Try not to scratch; broken skin is the thing that actually causes trouble.
How to Plan a Midge-Proof Day
Pick your day by wind rather than by temperature. Ten miles an hour of breeze is a gift. Start in the middle of the day rather than at dawn, walk high or along the coast, and eat lunch on an exposed rock or a breezy summit. If you are camping, aim for a site on the coast or high up, with the tent door facing the wind, and be inside before the evening stills. A flask and a midge net in the porch turn a ruined evening into a good one.
It also helps to remember what midges are for. They feed bats, swallows and trout, and a Highland summer without them would be a poorer place in every sense but the itchy one. Accept them as weather rather than as an enemy, plan your day around the wind, and you will get far more out of the season.
One last thing while you are out there: midges are the nuisance, but ticks are the health concern. After a day in long grass or bracken, check yourself over, and speak to a doctor if you find a bite with a spreading rash or you start to feel unwell afterwards.
Photo: dangquangn / Pixabay