Oregon Public Broadcasting

Despite winter’s best efforts, the snow, the ice and the extreme cold will not thwart Northwest bug populations. Insect experts say the little critters have many strategies for surviving the harshest time of year.

And as they do every year, Northwest bugs will wake up this spring just in time to gnarl on leaves, suck blood and cause general mischief. Richland Correspondent Anna King reports.

To get the low-down on bugs’ winter habits I talked with insect expert Doug Walsh. I said this harsh winter has to mean there will be fewer bugs this spring right? He says, “think again.”

Doug Walsh: “Three-hundred-million years of tried and true talent means these guys are going to be around long after we’re gone.”

Walsh is an entomologist at Washington State University in Prosser.

He says some bugs survive by sucking all the water out of their bodies and sleeping over the winter.

Others, like Monarch butterflies and moths winter in California or Mexico. Mosquitoes survive by staying in their larva stage in a pond during the cold months.

Adult house flies live a comfortable life thanks to our heaters right in our own homes.

So, Walsh says pesticide manufactures and exterminators will have no shortage of business come this spring.

The minions start waking up once it’s about 54 degrees outside.