The Weather

The weather and advertising are funny and hard to predict. An unexpected cold front hit N E Florida over the weekend, temperatures going below freezing for the second time this year.

The local newscast this morning was showing a lot of commercials for Pest Control, Lawn care and Termites. The announcer was telling me that the Termites were swarming. (which happens in the warmth of the mid-eighties, not the upper twenties).

Once again I have something to Blog about, something that once it is spoken by a pest control professional,  makes me chuckle.

How many times do you hear about the hard freeze and Mother Nature cutting in on my business? I love to hear the good folk here in Florida talking about the lack of a hard freeze, and not killing the insects off, my only response is.

What hard freeze????

When have we ever had a true hard freeze??????

Folk’s we live in Florida, in Jacksonville we had maybe a grand total of 6 to 8 hours of below freezing temperature. Not since the Ice age has there been a freeze capable of killing insects.

Mrs. Walter AKA the Wife likes to watch the “Prepper” Shows on TV, and there are a few things on these shows that made me think of how the insects survive the cold weather. Insects have several different ways of combating the cold weather.

1. The insects “Bug out”… Floridians knows all about this one. At the start of cold weather you see more Northern license plates on the road than you see Florida license plates. People are escaping the cold weather by traveling south, to a warmer climate. The Monarch butterfly flying south to Mexico is the best example of this migration.

2. Insects can pull their resources together and survive on the group’s body heat. They can also use the fallen leaves to find shelter. Termites and Ants will travel below the freeze line to wait out the cold.

3. The insects “Bug In” good old fashion hibernation.  Many insects will over winter in their larval stages or go into a deep sleep, and wait for warmer weather to come back. Mrs. Walter thinks I do the same thing.

4. Last but not least, my personal favorite marvel is an insect’s ability to produce “Antifreeze”. As the weather begins to cool off, the insect will produce glycerol, which increases in the hemolymph, thus protecting the insect from the harmful cold weather.

So next time you hear the fence post experts talking about the Hard freeze or lack of one, you too can chuckle.