Some victims have been hospitalized due to insect bites and the Blandford fly is being blamed for a summer surge in these bites.

But efforts are on to battle the blood-sucking insect and at the North Dorset market town and surrounding villages on the River Stour where the blood-sucking insects were first identified and named after have shown positive signs.

According to experts, Blandford fly, which is a tiny back bug, was spotted only in streams in rural southern England but they are now making way to towns and cities everywhere and this is happening due to the popularity of garden water features.

It happens often that the bites turn infectious and makes a patient head to a hospital for medical treatment for allergic reactions.

Roger Frost, team leader in Blandford district council’s food, licensing and safety department, said yesterday, “We have been treating the River Stour since 1993 and complaints about bites have dropped from about 1,500 a year to below 100. The biological treatment targets the larvae and has considerably reduced the population of flies.”