WEYMOUTH pharmacies claim they are seeing an overwhelming number of customers coming in with large, inflamed mosquito bites.

It comes as the national level of mosquitoes has risen considerably in the last few months – uncharacteristic for this time of the year.

To find out more about the problem The Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have launched Mosquito Watch in order to understand more about the insect in the UK.

Pharmacist Dipan Shah, pictured right, who owns the three Angel pharmacies in Weymouth said his staff had all reported a large increase in mosquito bites in the latter part of last week with Friday, September 9 being the worst day.

He said: “Last Friday I worked at the Southill branch and I can say that I’ve never seen this amount of people showing mosquito bites – even in the peak of summer. It is unusual for this time of year and I think that 70 per cent of people coming in for over the counter medicine was for insect bites.

“I’ve worked in pharmacies for 17 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never seen it this bad.”

Mr Shah said some of the bites were so bad he referred them to a GP or the Minor Injuries Unit in Weymouth.

He said he had to replenish the stocks of creams and anti-histamines at the weekend.

Mr Shah added: “Most people thought the bites took place in their garden or from walking around in the nature reserve.”

A spokesperson from Boots Pharmacy in St Mary’s Street, Weymouth, said the store also experienced an unusually high demand for treatment for bites.

Weymouth mum Paula Fry, aged 39, of Goldcroft Road, said the mosquitoes were out in unbelievable force on Friday.

She said: “My son was playing football at Weymouth College behind Lodmoor.

“It was muggy and everyone was getting bitten like crazy. It was like an attack of the piranhas in the sea – everyone was avoiding them and complaining.”

Nicky Green from Southill says the problem is bad where she lives. She said: “We try to avoid having windows or doors open so the mosquitoes cannot come in. They do seem aggressive this year.”

Another mother from Weymouth complained that her husband had received 30 bites recently.

RSPB Radipole nature reserve Weymouth Wetlands manager Nick Tomlinson said: “We’ve not noticed an increase in mosquitoes over what is expected, and being a wetland that is the nature of the beast and one of the reasons it’s so good for wildlife”.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health are seeking a better understanding of the incidence of mosquitoes biting humans in the UK and have developed Mosquito Watch – a dedicated database to record the incidences of mosquitoes nationally.

They are urging people to report mosquito specimens by catching a sample and sending it off in a crushproof container complete with a form recording the date of collection, general location, land use and local habitat.

The form can be downloaded from the HPA website www.cieh.org/policy/npap_mosquito_watch.html or at dorsetecho.co.uk All mosquitoes collected will assist with developing a picture of nuisance biting mosquitoes in the UK. Please note we can’t identify a specimen from just a description.