Swarms of midges are bugging a Tuscan beach town, which wants an emergency declared to help

Residents of the Tuscan beach enclave of Orbetello are seeking a state of emergency declaration to help combat an invasion of midges that are keeping people indoors and threatening businesses catering to tourists. Millions of the tiny bugs are swarming around Orbetello. The speck of land juts out into the Orbetello lagoon. The natural reserve is off Tuscany’s coast between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Monte Argentario. Fishermen say the swarms began about three weeks ago and blame a 2024 mass die-off of jeuvenile fish, known as fry, that are the main predators of midge larvae. Similar invasions have occurred in the past, and fishermen say the die-offs are the result of overall oxygen depletion in the lagoon ecosystem.