The unusually cold late-fall and early-winter weather figures to kill off a lot of overwintering insects.
But bug-busting freezes may be more of a mixed blessing for farmers and homeowners alike nowadays, said David Jones, an entomologist with the University of Georgia Extension Service.
"Any insects that overwinter as adults are definitely hurt by freezing weather," Jones said.
"We had a mild winter last year and some very high insect populations during the growing season," Jones said. "So overall, the below- normal temperatures should help us."
The biggest losers among insect pests may be stinkbugs, a serious pest of cotton, corn and soybeans, which all figure to be important crops in Georgia this year.
"I'm convinced that stinkbugs are going to be a serious pest in cotton," Jones said. "But they overwinter as adults, and they should definitely be hurt by the cold this winter."
The bad news for cotton growers is that bollworms, which overwinter as pupae in the soil, aren't normally hurt by freezing weather.
"They're not hurt unless the farmer tills the field during the winter, bringing up the pupae and exposing them to the cold," Jones said. "Farmers use to do that, but they don't do it much anymore."
Making the news about bollworms even worse is that many beneficial insects, which help control the bollworm populations, overwinter as adults and will likely enter the next growing season with reduced numbers.
Bollworms are actually two species of caterpillars, corn earworms and tobacco budworms. And with corn acreage predicted to be much higher this year (because of good corn prices), Jones figures many more corn earworms could be coming out of corn into cotton during the season.
"Cotton growers are going to have to watch carefully for bollworms," Jones said.
Many cotton growers will be planting Bt cotton, a genetically engineered variety that acts as its own insecticide against bollworms. But Jones said these farmers need to continue to scout their cotton carefully for secondary insect pests.
Beet armyworms, which devastated areas of Texas cotton and seriously damaged some Georgia fields last year, generally overwinter in tropical climates and could be later arriving in Georgia because of the cold winter, Jones said.
But homeowners who are counting on the hard winter to knock back numbers of fire ants may be disappointed.
"Fire ants have become acclimatized to Georgia," he said. "When these freezes come, they just go deeper into the soil to survive. Mole crickets will do that, too."
Jones said the severity of farmers' insect problems this year will depend on more than the cold we've already had.
"A lot of things influence insect populations," he said. "Dry weather hurts farmers more than anything with insects. But overall, I think a hard winter helps us out."
