GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you hadn't noticed, our December weather has been abnormally warm. In fact, 22 days in December had above-average highs while only 5 had below-average temperatures. So this begs the question, how will the crops be affected, and does this mean the bug population will be larger this spring or summer?
"Luckily, nature takes care of most of this for us," said NC State Extension Agent Ben Grandson, "The crops and plants have built-in timers for what we call cooling hours. These are the hours that the temperature is at or a bit above freezing up to the 40s, and all of the plants reach a threshold with regards to the number of hours at those, temperatures and that will trigger them to bloom or open. Most of our plants have grown accustomed to the average number of cooling hours, so they usually bloom on time."
There are occasions when the warm weather tricks the plants into opening up, and then we are hit with freezing temperatures. That can do some damage, but it's rare in this part of the world.
As far as the bug population is concerned, most of us probably think that a warm snap in winter will mean more bugs this spring and summer, but you would be wrong.
"It's a good thing to have a warm snap in December," said Grandson, "If the warm snap lasts long enough, the bugs will grow and come out of their larvae stage," continued Grandson, "Inevitably, we will see a cold stretch in January which is on average the coldest month of the year. That will kill the bugs and actually reduce their numbers for the warm seasons."