Beware all you haters (winter haters that is). You know who you are, and if you think the weird, warm, basically snow less winter is a good thing, then guess what? The pests love it too. Sorry about my angst concerning the winter of 2011/12. I actually like snow and lots of it! So much promise with the freak October storm, and more snow before Thanksgiving, but like the NE Patriots, I just may have to ‘wait until next year’. The big question out there is whether or not the mild winter is good or bad for insect pests. Since the entire country has had warmer than normal temperatures, there is some evidence out there that we may be in for an early (perhaps longer too) pest season. The following links are from news stories (not form NE, but from areas that do have real winter.

According to some entomologists, the warmer temperatures of this years winter season could lead to more mosquito problems and possibly more problems with ticks also.

On the other hand, some entomologists argue that the mild winter may be detrimental to the survival of pest populations (that are coming out of dormancy now) if the last four weeks of winter has near normal or below normal temperatures.

The reality is that its’ basically an educated guess. We’ll have to see how things play out.