Mild Winter Brings on this Minnesota Pest – Temporarily
This winter of 2023-24 will probably go down as the "winter that wasn't". I know that it has been hard on some businesses that count on a lot of their revenue from the normal cold and snow that you can usually count on during a Minnesota winter.
This is the oddest winter I can remember. I'm not complaining about the winter driving, either. It's been glorious. No sliding, so getting stuck in crazy amounts of snow or having to shovel endlessly (like last year). But as mentioned above, this isn't always great for everyone.
Also - this is going ot have an affect on some of the things that normally happen in the Spring and Summer after the snow has gone away. We didn't ever get that snow pack, nor do we have any standing water, for the most part. But - that is a good thing for one pest that we can usually count on being a "Minnesota staple".
Mosquitoes
Right now, there are some of those pesky mosquitoes showing up here and there. They are the ones that actually hang out during the wintertime. I just learned that they can last through the winter, at least some of them can. They don't all hatch a new breed in the beginning of every year, like I thought. There are a few that just hang out in various spots and wait out the winter. Then when it's warm enough, they will come out and bother everyone, then die off. But generally that's when the new batch will hatch and we have a bunch of mosquitoes that we are all used to having around. No one likes that.
But this year, since there really is little to no standing water to use as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, there may be much fewer of those pests this year. I'm calling that part of this crazy winter a definite win.
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