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Cold weather unlikely to kill crop pests like farmers might expect

A crop entomologist says he does not expect this winter’s cold weather to have a big impact on crop pests across much of the Corn Belt because of most insects’ ability to hide and adapt.

“The wind chill doesn’t really have the impact on insects that it does on us. Anything that is spending the winter here in Illinois will probably spend the winter either underground in residue, somewhere where it is protected from that wind and from those environmental conditions, where it is a lot warmer than it is outside.”

Nick Seiter with the University of Illinois says areas where there are abnormally icy conditions are more likely to kill common crop pests than cold air temperatures, but the conditions would have to be abnormal for an extended period of time.  

“If we had these, we will call them “Dakota” weather conditions, down here in Illinois for the entire winter, then yes we would start to see some impact.”

Seiter tells Brownfield the location, insect species and severity of the conditions determine if crop pests will over-winter.