We’re writing this in the wake of a winter storm that affected much of North America. Here at the Gardzen Test Gardens in coastal North Carolina, tehre’s still some snow on the ground depite a full day of rain and above-freezing temperatures. Like many gardeners, we’re still assessing how this has affected our garden spaces and our plants for the spring. While things will be fine, we did stumble upon an intersting question: does cold weather kill mosquitoes and other garden pests? These bugs are less active in cold weather, so does a serious cold period reduce their populations for the coming spring and summer. This seems to be a popular belief: a cold winter means fewer mosquitoes, fleas, gnats, and ticks in the spring.
Sadly, like many popular beliefs about the outdoors or nature, this one’s not exactly true. Whiel this may not be the new we all wanted, the interaction between cold weather and insect populations is more complex than many of us thought. So let’s dig in and learn more about how cold weather affects mosquitoes and other garden pests!
What Do Insects and Spiders Do in Cold Weather?
It’s tempting to believe that cold weather eliminates (or at least reduces) populations of some bugs. No one likes mosquitoes or ticks and many of us are leery around spiders. However, these critters have been around for a long time and they’ve evolved to survive challenging weather conditions, including the cold—ask any resident of lake country in Minnesota or Manitoba about the mosquitoes they face in the spring after their cold winters!
So how do they do it? It depends on the species of bug in question, so let’s start with mosquitoes. While individual mosquitoes don’t survive freezing temps very well, their eggs and larvea can do fairly easily. Different species of mosquitoes accomplish this in different ways: some lay eggs in places that don’t freeze, including indoors. Those that lay outdoors often deposite their eggs in standing water, where they can sink beneath ice level and survive the freeze. Other mosquitoes species have eggs, nymphs, and larvae that produce natural anti-freeze componds that keep them alive over the colder months.
Ticks—the second-most hated garden bug—do something similar. They go dormant for the winder and nest in out of the way places, piles of leaves or debris, or even indoors. Their eggs, like those of some mosquitoes, can survive cold weather due to natural componds that prevent them from freezing. Either way, they return when the weather warms up undeterred by the intervening cold.
As every pet owner knows, fleas are endlessly sneaky. These critters definitely nest indoors for the winter, riding in on both people and pets, laying eggs and going into a dormant state as necessary. Adult fleas on a pet cat or dog stay active all year; their host’s body temperature keeps them warm. Outside, fleas find protected places to burrow and nest for the winter: apparently a favorite trick of theirs is burrowing next to or even under paved surfaces that absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night, keeping the fleas warm.
So How Do We Get Rid of Mosquitoes and Other Pests?
Well, we don’t in full: eliminating all mosquitoes everywhere would have some pretty serious environmental implications. We can however reduce mosquito populations in our gardens and around our homes by improving drainage and clearing away standing water to reduce mosquito environment. Tightly cover rain barrels, change pet water and birdbath water regularly, and plant natural bug repellants like lemongrass and rosemary. Ticks require constant vigilience, keeping grass and shrubs trimmed and routinely inspecting both humans and animals after outdoor activities. Fleas, as always, are tricker. The best mitigation efforts seem to be treating our pets to avoid flea infestations and regularly vaccuming your home and cleaning our uphosltery to prevent fleas from taking up residence indoors.
Dealing with bugs is part of any outdoor activity, including gardening. With some reasonable and eco-friendly precautions we can help reduce mosquito, flea, and tick populations around our homes even if our recent winter weather doesn’t.
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