Do All the Bugs Die in the Winter?

Quite a few do, but trillions do not!

“Like the Terminator, the message from pest insects during the winter is ‘I’ll be back’”, says Leonard Douglen, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.

“One of the most common questions pest management professionals hear as the weather turns cold,” says Douglen, “is where to all the insects go? Many do die, but nature has equipped many pest insect and other species with the capacity to survive. For homeowners, termite colonies that have often been there unnoticed for years survive quite well both inside and outside.”

“Termites weather the winter by huddling together. Homes provide the same heat to their indoor colonies as it does to humans,” says Douglen. Those in outdoor colonies, just like ants, huddle together for warmth, usually below the frost line where they have stored food until springtime. Though a colony may have thousands of individual members, they function as a single organism.”

“Homeowners and others are often surprised to find cluster flies on a mild winter day,” says Douglen. “That’s because they sometime hide in the nooks and crannies of a warm house. There are literally thousands of places in a home that provide a place for insects to over-winter and this is true as well for rodents, mice and rats, who move indoors for the same reason.”

Not all pest species survive the winter alive. Mosquitoes, says Douglen, lay their eggs in the summer and the adults die off. The eggs, however, survive throughout the fall and winter months and can even survive freezing. In the spring, the eggs thaw and hatch.

“One way of surviving winter for many insect species is called ‘diapause’ and it affects eggs and pupae. It is a form of hibernation,” says Douglen. “It is a period of little or no activity.”

Near the Artic Circle, some species do the same in a process called torpor. Others, like flightless crickets, can freeze solid and resume activity when they defrost. Other insect species prepare for the cold by making their own antifreeze. During the fall, they produce glycerol that gives the insect’s body “super cooling” ability that allows their body fluids to drop below freezing points without causing ice damage. In the spring, their glycerol levels drop.

Like reptiles, insects are cold-blooded so their body temperature is determined by the weather. “Some insect species migrate to warmer areas,” says Douglen. “The most famous migration is that of Monarch butterflies, but other butterfly species as well as moths, dragonflies, and locusts also migrate.”

“Bed bugs, a widespread pest problem, can live for long periods after taking a blood meal and, since they live off of humans,” says Douglen, “that means they enjoy the same habitat, over-wintering without any problem at all.”

“The lesson,” says Douglen, “is that Mother Nature equips pest insect species will the ability to survive no matter how cold winter may become. Come spring, many homeowners will see the first indication they have a thriving termite colony when winged members take flight to establish new colonies. What they may not also know is that their home also has a carpenter ant colony.”

“These species have been here long before humans, so even if we do not see them during the winter months, you can be sure they will return in the spring.”

Founded in 1941, the New Jersey Pest Management Association celebrated its 70th year in 2011. The Association maintains a website at www.njpma.com.

Contact: Leonard Douglen @ (800) 524-9942

NJPCAssoc@aol.com

Disseminated by The Caruba Organization

Alan Caruba @ (973-763-6392

acaruba@aol.com

Pesticide-Free Does Not Mean Pest-Free

By Leonard Douglen

Recently a weekly newspaper serving the Princeton area published an article, “Playing without Pesticides” in which it reported on two “Pesticide Free” signs posted near two elementary school yards of Mansfield, “signifying that the school has taken a natural approach to managing pests and cleaning.”

The article also took note of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program that schools in New Jersey are required to have. As the Executive Director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association, I know something of this IPM program because the Association was instrumental in assisting the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to write it and because the Association provides our members with the scientific and technical information necessary to implement it.

Posting signs saying that a school area is “Pesticide Free” teaches children that pesticides are “bad” and should not be used. Demonizing pesticides does nothing to truly educate children to their benefits in terms of protecting their health and the protection of both public and private property that they provide daily.

By contrast, every year, several million African children die needlessly from Malaria because their communities lack access to DDT for the control and eradication the mosquito population.

When one considers the many insect pests that can attack children, from ticks that can cause Lyme disease to mosquitoes that transmit West Nile Fever, cockroaches that can spread a variety of diseases, as well as stinging insects, the need for professional pest control becomes self-evident. Inside and outside of every school, there is always the potential for an infestation.

Professional pest control service providers are required by law to be fully licensed and certified by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and must demonstrate both knowledge of proper practices, particularly as regards the use of pesticides, as well as having attended required annual training sessions.

The IPM practices pioneered by the pest control industry protect schools, working to achieve as pest-free an environment as modern pest control practices can ensure. That includes the careful, proper and intelligent use of pesticides.

The children attending Mansfield’s schools are far better protected precisely because of the work of pest control professionals than if they were left to Nature’s capacity to produce millions of insect and rodent pests every year.

Editor’s Note: The New Jersey Pest Management Association was founded in 1941 and recently conducted its 61st annual Clinic, a day filled with seminars on a variety of pest related problems. It maintains a website at www.njpestcontrol.com.
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For Editorial Purposes Only, Contact:
Leonard Douglen
(800) 524-9942