Another giant mosquito - this time it’s spotted in Milngavie

David Farrell from Braeside Avenue in Milngavie captured the gigantic creature in a jar after he was woken by the sound of it buzzing near his head at 6am last Friday.

He said: “I woke to the tell tale buzz on the left side of my head, which initially I thought I must be imagining - but it was too loud to pass off.

“At this point the sound switched to the right hand side and as I lifted my hand to that side of my head this insect fell from between my eyebrows and down the bridge of my nose.

“I leapt from my bed and looked down at the sheets to see nothing there. Shaken I took my self downstairs for an early cup of tea, switched on the laptop to read the papers online, when lo and behold I read your article ‘Giant Mosquitoes in Bearsden.’

“After this I rushed upstairs to check around the bedroom again. There was nothing on the sheets or quilt, but something made me look up and there on the wall above the bed, just about celling level.

“I rushed around looking for a camera and took a couple of images of it then I got an empty jar and captured it and sent you a photo.”

Dr Heather Ferguson, senior lecturer at the Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and comparative medicine at Glasgow University, said: “There are indeed mosquitoes in Scotland. Approximatley 30 mosquito species are known in the UK, and roughly nine to 10 species have been recorded in Scotland.

“Culex pipiens is one of the more common species that you’d find in Scotland.

“Some UK mosquitoes may have the potential to carry diseases (e.g. West Nile Virus to humans and animals), but to date there is almost no record of any mosquito borne disease infecting people in the UK.

“There used to be rare cases of malaria in parts of the UK but not for over a century.”

Get in touch with us if you see any unusual creatures in the area email [email protected]