The Sunday Times - Scotland
August 14, 2005
Midges suckered by blast of air
Kath Gourlay and Marc Horne
AS WELL as sucking blood from visitors to the Highlands it
is responsible for draining £5m a week from the country’s
tourist industry. Now the midge — the scourge of rural
Scotland — may finally have met its match.
Bobby Motherwell, a Glasgow heating engineer, has invented
a device that he claims will keep the tiny bloodsuckers at
bay.
The machine uses fans to blow air along fabric ducting suspended
around the area to be protected from the insects.The ducting
is fitted with outlet nozzles that allow the air to escape
downwards, creating a protective curtain of fast-moving air
that the midges cannot penetrate.
As well as keeping midges at bay during the summer, Motherwell
hopes that the device — which can also channel hot air
— will keep smokers warm when they are banned from pubs
next year.
The entrepreneur began his mission after becoming exasperated
at being repeatedly attacked by swarms of the insects.
“I’m an outdoor person but became sick and tired
of forever getting eaten by midges every time I went rock
climbing or mountaineering,” said Motherwell.
“I tried a whole load of ideas to get rid of them but
at first nothing seemed to work.
“Then an idea came to me when I went through the entrance
of a shopping mall and was met with a blast of hot air. I
saw it prevented insects from getting in and wondered if it
would work to keep midges out if it was used on a smaller
and more portable scale.”
His prototype was put to the test protecting a gazebo in
a midge-infested area near Loch Lomond.
“The initial tests were better then we ever dreamt
of. What we found was that when you stand in the area protected
by the air barriers you don’t get bitten at all. But
if you take one step outside then the midges are on you,”
said Motherwell.
Douglas Murray, who runs a business selling hot tubs in Arrochar,
near Loch Lomond, has tried the device.
“We suffer very badly during the summer months and
have tried everything to protect our customers from being
bitten,” he said.
“We have run various types of machines, including one
which sucks midges in and traps them in a net, but this one
has certainly been the most effective.”
Dr Alison Blackwell a research fellow in entomology at Edinburgh
University, believes that the device could be an effective
weapon against midges. “During the tests midge traps
were put in place inside and outside of the air curtained
areas and virtually none were caught inside,” she said.
A report by Blackwell’s department estimated that Scotland’s
tourism industry loses about £286m a year because people
are choosing to holiday elsewhere in order to avoid midges.
Read
the article -Sunday Times August 14th 2005
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