Post by Macmoish on Jul 29, 2010 6:34:10 GMT
Telegraph
Norwich City fans 'plagued by bugs since team switched to brighter kit'
Supporters of Norwich City claim they have been plagued by bugs since their team switched to new bright yellow shirts.
Fans walking home from a recent pre-season friendly were engulfed by the black bugs, who were looking for pollen.
An expert said the supporters would have to wear another colour if they wanted to deter the tiny pollen beetles, also known as Meligethes aeneus.
One supporter reported on a fan's message board: "Got absolutely engulfed in them today, annoying lot. I suppose a few thousand luminous yellow shirts didn't help either."
Another added: "When you wear your City shirt it attracts about a million tiny little black bugs."
The new kit has a brighter, 'more Brazilian' colour than the team's usual yellow strip, and seems to act as a magnet for the bugs.
Ian Bedford, head of entomology at the John Innes Centre in Norwich said: "Yellow is always a good colour to attract insects and that's why we have yellow sticky traps in greenhouses to monitor the number of pests around.
"Obviously in East Anglia a lot of oilseed rape is grown and these insects lay their eggs in flower buds of rapeseed flowers before they hatch into beetles and fly off to feed on pollen.
"These insects are highly attracted to yellow, because it's a sign to them of food.
"You see them on yellow bed sheets put out in gardens to dry and on daffodils, and now on yellow football shirts. They are a major pest of oilseed rape, but have become quite resistant to pesticides."
Norwich's Andrew Crofts in the new yellow strip Photo: Action Images
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7914299/Norwich-City-fans-plagued-by-bugs-since-team-switched-to-brighter-kit.html
