Rising temperatures, increasing daylight, and higher humidity bring insects and other pests out of dormancy. Then they start breeding and foraging, all in a fairly compressed window of time.
It seems like every bug in Wisconsin wakes up at the same time in April and May. After months of not thinking about pests, you suddenly have to deal with mosquitoes, ticks, ants, and wasps. All at once.
Most insects in the upper Midwest make it through winter by going dormant. And they all do this in a slightly different way.
Mosquitoes will overwinter as eggs in dry soil or as hibernating adults in sheltered spots. Ticks hide beneath leaf litter. Ant colonies slow down and go deep in the soil, only to ramp back up as the ground warms. Mated wasp queens come out from behind siding, bark, or wall voids to start new colonies.
Each species has a threshold on when to be active again. They want the soil or the air to reach a certain temperature. Then they can restart metabolic processes. One warm day in March won’t do it, but a steady warming trend in April will.
The other big factor is moisture. Snowmelt and spring rain saturate soil, fill breeding sites, and raise humidity. And all of these conditions make it easier for insects to survive and reproduce. For mosquitoes, spring rainfall creates the standing water that produces the season’s first generation of adults.
Longer days also influence timing. Many species use the ratio of daylight to darkness (the photoperiod) as a cue on when to come out of dormancy. That’s why pests seem to show up around the same time each year, even if one year is a little hotter or colder than another.
For you, that means early spring is when pest populations are at their smallest and most vulnerable. If you address them before summer breeding cycles compound, it will give you the greatest leverage over the rest of the season.
If you’re a homeowner in the Lake Country and you’re worried about pests this year, Mosquito Squad of Lake Country can help. Seasonal treatment programs start in early spring for exactly this reason. The best time to act is while populations are still building. This helps keep mosquitoes, ticks, and other pests at lower levels through the peak summer months.
