A company that is testing a new midge repellent is calling for volunteers who can brave eight hours of midge bites.
APS Biocontrol, who produces the repellent Smidge, needs 10 people over the age of 18 for the trial that will take place in Argyll, Scotland next week.
Each volunteer will be paid £100 to stand outside on either Wednesday or Thursday evening for up to eight hours.
Volunteers will be paid to put the repellent on one arm and leave the other exposed to count the number of midges that land.
The small biting insects can swarm in massive numbers around hikers and campers in Scotland during the warm months.
The test is likely to be held in Minard or Inveraray - notorious midge spots.
But Dr Allison Blackwell of APS biocontrol reassured volunteers that the biting wouldn’t be too bad.
She told the BBC: “When a midge lands on your skin, it kind of wanders around before it starts to bite.
“So at that point, one of the staff running the project will take that insect off, so you get very few bites to be honest.”
Smidge is testing a new repellent for another firm for product labelling. Dr Blacakwell said there has been a lot of interest.
“If you buy a product from the chemist and it says it protects for 8 hours, there has to be data to back up that claim,” Dr Blackwell told the BBC.
Midges thrive in wet and warm conditions and usually have two hatchings during the Scottish summer.
There are over 35 different species of biting midge in Scotland, but the Highland midge is the most harmful.
Dr Blackwell said that numbers have fallen recently because of the drier warmer summer earlier in the year.
