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Guide 4 of 5

The midge and the mosquito of the same Noosa marsh

Two insects bite people around the same Noosa marsh, and the difference between them decides what can be done about them. Noosa Council says it in its own words: midges carry no disease to people, and they cannot be eradicated.

Noosa Shire's four answers to pests, drawn as four nested rings on paper. Outermost, KEEP OUT, holding fire ants. Next, REMOVE, the plants the plan could clear from the shire, and then CONTAIN, the plants a landowner must hold on their land. Innermost, LIVE WITH, holding the saltmarsh mosquito and the biting midge. At the centre, a brown square, THE HOUSE. It is a diagram, not a map, and it is drawn in order rather than to scale. Each ring's label opens a guide. KEEP OUT a sighting goes to the national program Fire ants. Noosa Council: “We don’t want them in Noosa Shire.” five invasive plant species already brought under control REMOVE cleared only with residents and landowners 10 priority invasive plants that could potentially be eradicated CONTAIN the landowner keeps it on their property landowners must control invasive species on their land LIVE WITH the marsh is treated the yard is yours saltmarsh mosquito biting midge THE HOUSE and the one protected animal a licensed technician Four answers, drawn in order. A diagram, not a map.
Noosa Shire's four answers to pests, as four bands indented one inside the next, from KEEP OUT at the top through REMOVE and CONTAIN to LIVE WITH, with THE HOUSE last. It is a diagram, not a map. Each band opens its guide. KEEP OUT a sighting goes to the national program Fire ants. Noosa Council: “We don’t want them in Noosa Shire.” five invasive plant species already brought under control REMOVE cleared only with residents and landowners 10 priority invasive plants that could potentially be eradicated CONTAIN the landowner keeps it on their property landowners must control invasive species on their land LIVE WITH the marsh is treated; the yard is yours the saltmarsh mosquito the biting midge THE HOUSE a licensed technician and the one protected animal
Four answers, drawn in order. A diagram, not a map.

Two insects, one marsh

The biting midge is a small insect and a familiar nuisance along the Australian coast, and the council's fact sheet is careful about one thing above all: biting midges do not transmit diseases to humans. The council's mosquito page repeats the point in its own words, that midges do not carry disease to humans, and then goes on to the measures a household can take.

The fact sheet was written for the Sunshine Coast, and it counts four species of biting midge there that count as pests to residents and visitors. Their season is long. Midges are most active in the warmer months, from September through to April, they are busier around dawn and dusk, and they are at their most numerous in the suburbs closest to mangroves and the inter-tidal zone.

Both biters work the same way. As with mosquitoes, only the female midge bites, and she needs a blood meal before her eggs can be fertilised. The midge has one habit worth knowing, which is that it is small and easily carried by the wind, so it prefers a dull, still day with high humidity for its meal.

The two biters, side by side

The council gives its own account of each, on its mosquito control page and in its biting midge fact sheet.

The saltmarsh mosquitoThe biting midge
Lives mostly in saltmarsh and freshwater areas, and its breeding season peaks from September to May.Most prevalent in the suburbs closest to mangroves and inter-tidal zones, and more active in the warmer months, September to April.
Capable of passing Ross River and Barmah Forest viruses, so the council's programme targets the species that can.Carries no disease to humans. Its cost is the nuisance itself.
Treated from the air: aircraft target the larvae in the inter-tidal and mangrove areas after rain or a high tide.No registered larvicide, because the larvae live in environmentally sensitive inter-tidal ground and their spread is not well understood.
The council says some breeding locations cannot be treated at all, and names bird baths and pot plant bases among them.The council counts midges among the most complicated pests to control, and says they cannot be eradicated.

How a person tells them apart

The council's fact sheet gives the midge's life cycle in numbers, and the numbers are short. Most midge species pass through four stages: an egg that lasts about five and a half days, four larval stages together taking about 18 days, a pupa of about three and a half days, and then the adult, which is the stage a household meets.

Size is the practical difference. A midge is small enough to pass through an ordinary flyscreen, and the fact sheet records that during a peak infestation midges have been known to come indoors looking for a blood meal.

The other difference is what the council can do about each. The mosquito has a programme, a trigger and an aircraft. For the midge the fact sheet is blunt: spraying adults is the only option available, it gives short-term relief only, and it has to be repeated.

What the council says a household can do about midges

Everything on the council's own list follows from one fact about the insect, which is that it prefers humid, overcast conditions with little air movement. What the fact sheet asks for is the opposite of those conditions: less humidity, more light and more moving air, so that the house and the garden stop being attractive to midges.

The most specific item on the list is the electric fan. The fact sheet records that air movement from fans can make an area unsuitable for biting midges, because their activity drops once wind speed is over six to eight kilometres an hour. Its line on repellents is short: most insect repellents work against midges, and the fact sheet says they should be used whenever a person is outside the house.

None of that removes the midge, and the council is clear that nothing will. Its fact sheet ends where this guide ends, with an insect that cannot be eradicated, that has no registered larvicide, and that is most active around dawn and dusk.