What do bugs do in winter?
Christine Schlueter
Date Modified: 12/07/2009 4:14 PM
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The ground is alive with myriads of ants, bugs, beetles, caterpillars and smaller insect life. Inevitably there comes a night when the temperature drops below the freezing point and the vegetation is thickly coated with frost. On the following day no insects are seen or heard. Where did they go?
Insects need a way to cope with the ups and downs of temperatures.
A few butterfly species and moths migrate south early in autumn, including Monarch butterflies. Adult angle-winged butterflies, such as the Mourning Cloak and Red Admiral, hibernate in outbuildings or hollow trees. On balmy winter days they may emerge and flutter aimlessly. Others stay in the pupa stage until spring.
Grasshoppers die. So do all but a few species of butterflies and moths. Ants huddle in burrows. Honeybees huddle in their hives. Bumblebee queens and the queens of colonies of social wasps find protected places where they hibernate until spring, but the males and workers die.
There is warmth in numbers and being close to each other. Those that hibernate in the ground find a place where they can go below the soil that freezes.
All male mosquitoes die. Fertilized females of the common mosquito congregate in cellars, catch basins, hollow trees and other protected places where they hibernate. The woodland and floodwater mosquitoes winter as eggs.
Other insects seek places to hibernate. They manage to creep through cracks and invade homes: Houseflies, bluebottle and greenbottle blowflies, wasps, lady beetles, and boxelder bugs. Some kinds of adult insects can endure long periods of extreme cold while hibernating if those periods are continuous -- not interrupted by warm thawing days and some, believe it or not, survive being frozen. This is a state called diapause which basically means "sleep time" which is different than hibernation because there is no growth during this time.
There are two kinds of diapause: Obligatory, which means that an animal or insect must do this at some stage in its development. Facultative means the insect is sleeping because something bad is going to happen. With facultative diapause, the creature goes to sleep before the drought or cold winter. The most reliable and consistent indicator of seasons is daylight. It's the most important factor in stimulating diapause. Insects diapause in the pupae stage. Everything comes to a complete standstill during diapause because of reduced oxygen intake. This affects reproduction. Some insects may have only one generation a year or maybe only every two years depending on the environment and available food. It really is all in their genes. They instinctively do what their body tells them to do. Think about how insects survive the cold and how they will soon be out and about once warmth returns. Everything needs a rest during winter to rejuvenate.
Keep those questions and comments coming by sending to Christine Schlueter, 19276 Walden Ave, Hutchinson MN 55350 or email rcschlueter@yahoo.com.