Spare a thought for female midges, who could soon lose the title of Scotland’s premier biting insect to the biggest pest of them all. Mosquito Scotland is a collaborative project between researchers at the University of Glasgow, MRC-UofG Centre for Virus Research, UK Health Security Agency and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. And once you’ve digested all those names, you might be surprised by their findings.
So are mosquitos a new thing in Scotland?
16 types of mosquitos have so far been discovered in all corners of the country once reserved for midge swarms: including Culex pipiens, which might sound like the baddie in a Kindle Unlimited novel about a woman who suddenly inherits her mysterious great-aunt's witch powers, but is in fact a type of mosquito usually found in the Americas, across parts of Europe, North Africa and some parts of Asia.
Seeing as this is the first comprehensive study of its kind in Scotland, it's possible that mozzies have been quietly donning kilts for some time. But the cold winters Scotland is known for inevitably lead to die-offs for the droning ones, and so numbers remain low.
Warmer temps mean a greater risk of mosquito-borne diseases
The worry going forward, not just for Scotland but for the rest of the UK, and one of the reasons this is a timely study with such eminent organisations involved, is in whether climate change-spiked temperatures will lead to greater numbers. This scenario could bring an influx of disease-carrying mosquitos to our shores, which may mean the UK will eventually be subject to the risk of dengue fever, Zika, West Nile disease or even malaria outbreaks.
As we get warmer, the locals get less friendly
The good news is, malaria is an extremely unlikely outcome for the UK in coming years, global warming or no. As for dengue fever, there were multiple home-grown cases recorded in parts of Europe in 2023: notably France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Croatia.
The UK has stayed free of these diseases thus far, but should the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito rock up, we could be looking at a different picture. The emerging risk of tropical diseases in Europe due to climate change is one which remains under close scrutiny, as our world adapts to the new normal of warmer weather.
Don't panic, and always know where your repellent is
While this all might sound a bit scary, news stories about potential disease outbreaks fall into the 'fight freeze flight' adrenaline response category, and as such let's remember that we were once cave people, using the adrenalin spike to start grappling a cave lion, pretending to be a rock, or running like the wind.
There's no point in catastrophising the current mosquito stats - keep calm, carry on, and keep your Love Bites Only handy. Because not only does it look beautiful when produced from your bag, it'll protect you from mosquitoes (and female midges, who would like to remind us that they are still very much the biting VIPs of Bonnie Scotland).
LBO x