MIDGES are the scourge of Scotland - a tiny army that has caused thousands of tourists to make a hasty retreat.
However, an inventor says he has come up with an ingenious idea to keep them at bay.
Retired professor Alistair Stewart has invented the Bugwisa, a baseball style cap with a built-in anti-midge fan to blow the little blighters away.
Mr Stewart, 59, who took early retirement from his job as an electronics tutor in Glasgow on health grounds, has always invented things in his spare time.
He said: "I used to be involved in aeronautics and model air planes and I noticed the midges never came round the planes that were flying.
"The fan does give you relief from the midges and anything else that flies, it protects your face and it is better than candles and stuff you spray on, it's better than anything else I have tried so far."
The cap is fitted with small solar panels so that in the summer the fan can operate without batteries, although a battery connection can be fitted as a back-up.
Mr Stewart, from Connel, near Oban, who has also come up with a hard hat version of his idea for construction workers, says the cap can be used by fishermen and by anyone spending time outdoors and will also keep kitchen staff cool.
He said: "If it is used inside you can fit a battery pack at the back of the cap."
He added: "Midges definitely scunner you. If I can get someone to manufacture this the tourists will come back to Scotland.
"It can be manufactured for sale for under £10 for the cap and £25 for the hard hat, but I am just an ideas man,
"I want to find someone to manufacture this for me."
Another of Mr Stewart's inventions is a two-fan unit designed to fit on to outdoor canopies and garden table umbrellas, to create a down- draft, similar to that created by a helicopter. He said: "It dispenses the midges."
Scotland's leading midge expert has forecast that midges could return to the Highlands in record numbers this year.
Dr Alison Blackwell said the mild winter and warm spring, following on from earlier torrential rain, could create perfect conditions for midges.
Midges are estimated to cost the Scottish tourist industry £286 million each year in lost revenue. Last year, however, the hot summer caused a fall in the number of biting midges recorded. Four out of the five midge recording traps saw falls of up to 80% compared to 2012.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article