Insects are cold-blooded, so their activity is tied to temperature. With spring comes warmer weather, which heats up the soil and air they live in.
If your property suddenly seems overrun with bugs after the first stretch of warm weather, the timing isn’t a coincidence. And any frustration you may feel after seeing ants in the kitchen or ticks on the dog after a long winter is completely understandable.
Most insects survive Wisconsin winters by entering a dormant state called diapause. Their metabolism slows nearly to a halt, and they shelter in soil, leaf litter, under bark, inside wall voids, or beneath the frost line. It’s similar in principle to bears hibernating for the winter.
Once temperatures regularly reach the 40s and 50s, their bodies respond. Metabolism ramps up, movement resumes, and the drive to find food and mates takes over. This is why spring pest activity can feel sudden. If you weren’t aware of this dynamic, you’d expect a gradual increase. What you see play out feels a lot more like a switch being flipped.
Ticks are among the first to emerge. Adult blacklegged ticks can become active as soon as temperatures reach the mid-30s on sunny days. This can happen as early as March in Wisconsin. Shortly afterward come the ants, then the mosquitoes once it warms up a little more and there is standing water for them to breed in. Populations for all build quickly from there.
Wasps and hornets also begin constructing nests in the spring. A single queen that survived the winter begins building and laying eggs. By midsummer, that colony can house hundreds. Early spring is the best time to address new nests, while they're still small and the colony is weak.
If you’re a Northeast Wisconsin homeowner and you want to get ahead of spring pest pressure, Mosquito Squad of Northeast Wisconsin can help. This can be done with early-season barrier treatments that help reduce mosquitoes, ticks, and other outdoor pests by up to 85-90%. Starting treatments before populations peak gives your property a head start on season-long protection.
