Your holiday has just started and at the end of the first day the prospect of an aperitif in the garden or by the lakeside is very appealing. It has just passed 5pm. The first sip is rewarding and satisfying as you sit back to breath in the clean, fresh air and absorb the breath-taking scenery. Gradually you feel uncomfortable and find that you have the urge to scratch your head and face. Then you are aware of something like dust particles floating around the upper part of your body. Dismissing them with a wave, thinking they are far too small to contemplate, you carry on with your aperitif and conversation. But then you find yourself itching so much, eventually you can’t take it any more and head inside wondering how these minute creatures could have ruined your evening, you can hardly see them!
Next day you frighten yourself as you look in the bathroom mirror, still itching, and see an image of someone who appears to be suffering from measles! But it’s not measles, it’s the result of the bite of the ferocious Culicoides impunctatus, the infamous female Highland Midge ! She will come out every evening like a vampire, to fulfil her need to supply her unborn eggs with blood. She breeds in damp vegetative areas and is attracted to you by the carbon dioxide you breath out. The only way she will not detect you and attack for your blood is if you stop breathing!
However, there is an alternative…that works!
