Midge and fly numbers soar in South-West
Mosquitoes, larger and more ferocious than the midge, are now also being found in great numbers in the South Kerry area, it has emerged.
A report to Tralee Town Council last night has attributed a fly nuisance in the North Kerry area at the end of April to works Kerry County Council was carrying out on the regional landfill north of Tralee. A change in temperature led to a sudden increase in the flies and the north-east wind blew the flies south and west. The council has apologised to residents whose homes were infested.
The report was requested by town councillor Cathal Foley after businesses and homes in Tralee were infested on Apr 30.
However, a report by senior county engineer Tom Sheehy found it was unlikely flies from the Muingnaminnane landfill in the Stacks Mountains flew as far south as Caherciveen and Kenmare.
The council was inundated with complaints about flies from all over the county. “It is difficult to envisage that a point source of flies scattered on the wind could lead to difficulties as far afield as South Kerry. Complaints were also received from Killarney and Listowel which was upwind and couldn’t have been affected by the landfill,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the south of the county, Rupert Varley who is involved in the control of midges through his web-based Midge Magic Oysterbed Solutions firm, said there is a great increase in midges and people suffering from midge attacks are contacting him from Connemara to Wicklow.
There had been a big rise in the mosquito population also, he said. “And where we would have trapped the odd mosquito in years past, we are now trapping hundreds,” Mr Varley said of his experience in Sneem.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre advises there is no threat of disease from mosquitoes in Ireland because there are not enough of them.
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