Eli5: Where do insects go when temperatures drop below -25C in the winter and isn’t the soil frozen for them to go under?
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Insects have lots of different strategies. Some have antifreeze blood and can freeze solid. Some burrow deep underground before it freezes. Some migrate. Some just die, having timed their reproduction so that their eggs or larva survive.
I heard this is why it’s bad people rake up all the leaves instead of leaving them on the grass. Bugs use the layer of leaves and grass as shelter
Water temps are generally more stable, so a lot of species utilize it for young, and eggs are very durable and often deposited in places like wood, dirt, houses, holes etc.
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Pine beetles take weeks of -30C to kill the bastards. And that kind of cold doesn’t really happen anymore.
They are at my house….looks like heated on grade floors in Canada were a good idea at the time but I’m regretting it now 🤦♀️
Hypothesis here, no evidence, but do some insects have anti-freeze type compounds like some fish do?
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