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Insect migration likely altered by snowy April

Winter-like conditions that persisted into April could reduce insect populations this growing season.

Bruce Potter, an Integrated Pest Management Specialist with the University of Minnesota, says migratory insects have several ways of surviving during the winter.

“But once they break that hibernation, they’re vulnerable.  Where we see a lot of insect mortality usually is if it’s warm early and insects start to change that physiology to get them active in the spring, and then we get a cold snap.  That’s one thing we’re watching.”

Snow events and sub-freezing temperatures were common in the Upper Midwest throughout last month.

Potter tells Brownfield the abnormal spring has also delayed cutworm and armyworm migration.

“Last year we were catching black cutworms already on April 3rd.  If any tried to make it up here this spring, they would’ve iced up somewhere over Nebraska and fell out of the sky.  So that migration has moved back a bit as well.”

At this point, Potter does not expect dramatic changes in insect pressure, but says that could change later in the year.