A question that might be hard to answer - Scotland

[ScotRoutes]

https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/H ... rflies.htm

Yeuch!

[wriggles]

I had never even heard of cleggs before. I'm wondering now if I have mistaken the cleg fly for a horse fly in the past.

Yeah same thing. Horsefly in England, Cleg in Scotland. Horrible things that will happily bite through clothing. One thing I have noticed is they have a very distinct slow flight style, and always seem to come in from behind at 45 degrees. You learn to spot them out of the corner of your eye

[ScotRoutes]

Just pulled a tick off me. First of the year. I'll be applying Smidge on every outing now.

[bigtalljohn]

IME we get cleggs on sunny days, when the midge are in hiding. Seems to be worse in thundery weather too. Long dry spells seem to increase their numbers, exactly what the midge don't like. They also seem to have some hotspots - that bit between Dalwhinnie and Fort William seems to be the worst I've come across. They must survive off deer. Annoyingly the cleggs are silent in flight so there is often little warning of their approach.

Still, of the three terrors - midge, clegg, tick - the latter is by far the most dangerous. I normally get caught out without repellent once early in the year and after that I try to remember to apply it regularly, even if it's only to my legs. Bivvying offers a fresh, new hell. I picked 24 ticks off me after a 3-day trip with MH last year.

I think as the winters are getting warmer we are getting attacked more, as glen Affric is my local training area I presume all Scotland will be the same but as you say the ticks and cleggs are the bustards, the cleggs can be sore for days after and ticks just bad news