SWARMS of "super midges" are attacking customers and damaging business in High Wycombe.

The tiny insects, which are most prevalent during the summer, have been creating havoc at the Wye Industrial Estate, in London Road, since before Christmas.

John Stroud, sales manager at Wrights Wholesale cars and vans, said: "It's incredible. Customers are getting out of their cars and then getting straight back in again because they are being swamped by the midges.

"We had one lady here on Friday who refused to get out of her car."

"We are literally surrounded by them and people are having to swot them away. They are becoming a real nuisance."

David Gray, manager of nearby The Sound Gallery, said his car audio company is suffering too.

"The midges are driving me mad," he said. "They are getting everywhere, even into our display cabinets. I am having to hoover them out every couple of days.

"It's not nice for our customers."

The winged pests, which buzz around their victims potentially leaving them with loads of itchy bites, would appear to be flying in the face of nature by defying the recent cold snap.

And Mr Stroud, a keen fisherman, said the situation had left him baffled.

"This at a time when there is frost on the cars is very strange," he said. "I've been fishing all around the area and haven't seen them anywhere else.

"It's like the ones here are some kind of super midge."

The west of Scotland is famous for its midge population, but anywhere near open water is an attractive proposition for the insect.

And Mr Stroud reckons the recent influx at the industrial estate coincided with work by Thames Water on a neighbouring sewage works.

He said: "It seems a strange coincidence that as soon as they started to decommission the sewage works behind us that the midges suddenly appeared in their swarms. I've been here seven years and this has never happened before."