With summer coming, you can be sure there will be lots of winged creepie-crawlies buzzing around your hospitality establishment. If you don’t have one already, it will be a good time to get a fly killer light.

While such devices are useful in kitchens for keeping germ-carrying insects away from food (being killed generally puts a stop to such behaviour), the need will also be felt by many customers, especially those who are at elevated risk of being bitten by the sort of creatures who love light summer evenings – and blood.

This issue has been raised by a new study, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, concerning research by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Boffins there have come up with what they believe is a super-effective insect repellent that is going to be especially useful for that 20 per cent of the population who get bitten more than usual, due to their sweat or breath being more attractive to mosquitoes and other biting insects than that of the average person.

All this may sound like good news, but of course it highlights the fact that this very summer will still see many of your customers being at higher risk, as it takes time to translate lab discoveries into products on the pharmacy shelves.

Britain may not have anything carrying malaria, dengue fever or other tropical diseases, but there are lots of other nasty biters out there, not least Scottish midges.  Like the mozzies, they have their favourite targets.

As Highland Titles notes, some are more prone to midge bites than others, with research suggesting the amount of a chemical called ketone that the body produces makes all the difference. Some secrete lots and the midges stay away. Others do not and the swarms can’t wait to pounce on them.

So while it may be that a year or two down the line we can all grab a spray that deters every biting beastie, in the meantime the vampire insects will be targeting some folk more than others. That is why having extra defences to frazzle the flying foes will still be particularly welcome this summer.