What happens to insects during the winter?
January, 2008
Don Steinkraus, professor of entomology in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, replies:
Insects employ many different strategies to survive over the winter. Some travel south for the winter, like monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico or Southern California.
Monarch butterflies wintering in Santa Cruz, CA. |
Others remain in the same locale and find ways to survive. While invisible to humans conducting their daily business, many insect species remain around throughout the winter. Honey bees stay in their hives all winter, eating honey and vibrating their wing muscles to stay warm. Tent caterpillars spend the winter as eggs on tree branches and emerge in early spring. Bumblebees and wasps overwinter as adults, hiding under tree bark on in rotten logs - anywhere that protects them from the cold. Grasshoppers survive as eggs in the soil and cicadas live as nymphs underground. Many moths overwinter in the pupal stage - the reorganization phase between larva and adult - in cocoons or soil. Many of these insects produce a natural "antifreeze" that allows them to survive colder temperatures until spring. There are almost as many different strategies for surviving winter as there are insect species.