Cold weather could limit ash borer threat

[Earth_First]

There is one silver lining in the cold, frozen, uniformly white expanse...record low temps could put a dent in the emerald ash borer population.

But this week's subzero temperatures could fatally freeze some of the larvae, according to Rob Venette, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service who has studied the bug.

The green beetles die when winter arrives. But their spawn, countless emerald ash borer larvae, are currently waiting out the cold just beneath the bark of many ash trees,

Venette said.The borers produce a kind of natural anti-freeze during these dormant months, Venette said."

But if it does get cold enough, they will freeze," he said.

https://signin.chicagotribune.com/GS/bookmark.aspx?close=true&post_id=100000323711289_759537687400348#_=_

[earthside]

1. Well, that is potentially good.

Ash borers have just started showing up in Colorado.

Of course, the pine beetle kill in the mountains here has also been the result of too many mild winters not freezing those little destroyers to death.

[GoCubsGo]

2. I'm hoping it will knock back the fire ants here.

We're getting a couple of nights in the low teens here, which is extremely rare. With any luck, it will take out a lot of fire ant colonies, as well as the crazy ants that have invaded parts of the South. And, the Formosan termites...

[progressoid]

3. That's been a problem with pine beetles too.

We've lost all but one pine to pine wilt. And the devastation in the west is even worse.

[Snarkoleptic]

4. The link appears to be behind a paywall.

Here's a nearly identical story-

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_24842238/silving-lining-cold-it-kills-emerald-ash-borers

His research found that 5 percent of larvae will die at 0 degrees, 34 percent at 10 below, 79 percent at 20 below and 98 percent at minus 30.

Apparently, just hitting the temperature mark does the trick.

"It's almost instantaneous. So once it gets to those critical temperatures, that's enough to kill them. What we don't know is what prolonged exposure to slightly warmer temperatures will do. So for example, we've now had several days where we've been at minus 10 or colder. And we just don't know at this point what that does to emerald ash borers," Venette said.