Rising soil and air temperatures, increasing daylight, and returning moisture trigger insects and other pests to come out of dormancy, resume breeding, and start searching for food.
It feels like every bug in New Hampshire wakes up at the same time in April and May. And that feeling isn’t far from the truth. After a long winter of not thinking about pests, the sudden return of mosquitoes, ticks, ants, and wasps can be overwhelming.
Mosquitoes overwinter as eggs or hibernating adults in sheltered spots. Ticks spend their days hiding under things like leaf litter and become active again once temperatures consistently reach the mid-40s. Ant colonies do something similar, digging deep in the soil and ramping activity back up once the ground warms. Wasps that mated in the fall suddenly emerge from behind siding or bark to start new colonies.
If you want to blame one common factor for all of these, blame temperature. Warmer soil and air kickstart pest metabolisms. Although it’s not immediate, which is why one warm day won’t cause all the pests to come out in full force. There has to be a sustained warming trend, which is why a warm week in March won’t immediately produce a full-blown mosquito season like April or May will.
The other big factor is moisture. Snowmelt and spring rain leave behind standing water and saturate the soil. This is enough to give insects, especially mosquitoes, places to breed and to hide.
The practical takeaway of all of these facts is that spring is when pest populations are the smallest and the most vulnerable. If you address them early, your summer and fall will be a lot more comfortable. Because right now is the time to control them at the population level.
Mosquito Squad of Central New Hampshire starts seasonal treatment programs in the spring for exactly this reason. This helps keep mosquitoes, ticks, and other pests at bay through the peak summer months rather than playing catch-up after populations have already exploded.
