It’s been cold around here lately. At the beginning of the week, we woke to actual temperatures of -25 degrees. The highs didn’t crack zero.

I hate it. I understand the snow bird logic, and every year wish I was in Yuma with my husband’s aunt and uncle. They’re enjoying mild weather and have veggies already growing.

Benefits of Cold Spells

But, since I won’t be going anywhere warm in the near future, I need to be positive. The cold weather does make life easier in some respects. For example, now I know why we dont have boll weevils. Weevils are the destructive exotic species that wiped out cotton crops in the 19020s. In an article sighting a study from Mississippi State University says theyll die if they are exposed to six days of sub-freezing temperatures. Thats a good thing.

Extended cold spells are another reason the Africanized bee populations havent traveled past southern Nevada and Utah. European honeybees, whether feral colonies or the ones in hives, cluster tightly around the queen keeping her safe and warm, while maintaining the internal temperature of the hive around 90 degrees through body contractions (bee shivering, in other words). No matter how cold it is, they cling together working as one keeping the colony warm. (We actually tested this one winter by installing thermographs on the inside and outside of one hive. During a couple of days there were a one-hundred degree temperature differences.)

Africanized bees cant do this for the time required to pull through a northern winter. They can hold it together for a short amount of time, enough to survive a brief cold snap in the South, but cant do this for months. Since bees are big part of our life, Im very happy we dont have to worry about stumbling across these honeybee-on-steroid cousins when we capture a swarm or even check our own hives.

Exploding Mountain Pine Beetle

Although the cold is definitely beneficial to minimize many insects that are prevalent in other parts of the country, we cant seem to have cold enough temperatures to take care of the problem of the exploding mountain pine beetle population. The mountain pine beetle is native to the area, but during the right conditions when trees are stressed due to drought or overcrowding, they thrive and kill millions of pines. This is evident in many parts of the West.

The beetles are vulnerable before they burrow beneath the bark for the winter, but in order to kill them now, we would have to have temperatures of -30 for at least five days. As much as many people want these beetles gone, thats brutal weather to wish would happen. So, since it doesnt look like the cold is doing much good, I think Ill just pray for a Chinook, those warm snoweater winds!