Bugs poised to flit into action for the season, P.E.I. scientist says
This spring's chilly weather sidelined some insects, but that's set to change quickly
Humans aren't the only creatures that stay relatively hidden when the weather is lousy.
This spring's chilly and rainy weather sidelined insects too, but a Charlottetown-based research scientist says that will change quickly now that the mercury is rising.
"They tend to stay quiet when it's cold," Christine Noronha told CBC's Island Morning this week. "If this continues for very long, then it starts to have an impact on their survival and their movement."
Noronha works with Agriculture and AgriFood Canada.
She said bug survival rates have been "a little bit better" recently because Prince Edward Island's winters have been getting milder. Even when the temperature plummets, bugs can find shelter in plant debris and snow that collects along hedgerows.
"With the spring being so cool, the insects are a little bit slower coming out," she said. "They wouldn't be feeding as much as well, [or] just moving around too from plant to plant or from one area to the next.
"But [when] it does warm up, then you'll start to see them feeding a lot more, moving, flying around, moving from plant to plant … and also laying their eggs."
That's because insects don't generate their own body heat like humans and other mammals do, but depend on external heat sources, Noronha said.
"When the sun is shining, you will see some of them sitting in the sun or basking in the sun, kind of. They need that heat to heat up their … wing muscles so that they can fly.
"Usually around 15 to 20 degrees is when they start to get really active."
That can change even over the course of a single spring day, she said.
Bumblebees, for example, are "kind of slow in the early morning when you see them, but then later on in the day, if it's sunny, they'll start moving around a lot more."
Now for the bad news.
"Mosquitoes and black flies and all that are doing fine," Noronha said. "They have a lower temperature range, so they are fine. They are out there."
There is a bright side to that, though. Tree swallows and some other kinds of birds eat those insects, and frogs and minnows feed on the larvae of mosquitoes and black flies.
"All those animals are doing fine, so it's just a slower process," Noronha said. "They're not getting as much to eat. But things haven't really come to that point where other animals are more active and insects are not."
Another thing that people are seeing, according to Island social media pages dedicated to nature, are very large bees hanging around windows.
Noronha said these are probably females emerging from their overwintering spots.
"Insects in the fall, they come to the buildings because the buildings have heat and you have heat radiating out," she said.
"Now they're searching for a place to start their nest because that's what happens every year… They search for places [where] they could make their bigger nest and have a colony… Eventually they're going to be the queens in the nest."
Noronha said it's important for people who spend time in the woods or walking through tall grass to be on the lookout for ticks, which can spread Lyme disease.
Wear long pants with long socks on, and check when you get home to see if a tick has attached itself to your skin. If that happens, she said you should remove the tick, put it in a container and get it checked to see what kind of tick it is.
That's also her advice if you see an unusual insect around your property. Use iNaturalist or other online resources to find out what they are.
"It's only when you know what something is that you can actually control it – or know if you need to control it or not.
"The good bugs that are predators, you don't want to kill them, right? You want to keep them in the area."
With files from Island Morning