Rome
AP
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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 have invaded Orbetello, a speck of land that juts out into the Orbetello lagoon, a natural reserve 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 juvenile 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…
