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.

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