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Robert F. Bukaty / AP
With the temperature at 6 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, steam vapors from the Sappi paper mill dissipate into the early morning sky in Westbrook, Maine, on Thursday.
As the bitter cold in the northeastern United States keeps even hardy New Hampshire skiers off the slopes, there’s at least one potential upside to the cold snap: fewer mosquitoes come summer, according to an entomologist riding out the cold in upstate New York.
"Most arthropods have the ability to super-cool themselves in order to survive extreme cold winters in the ranges they’ve become adapted to. However, if unusually cold temperatures strike, it could be below their threshold of tolerance," Cornell University's Laura Harrington explained via email to NBC News.
And it is cold. Unusually so. New Hampshire’s Wildcat Mountain ski resort was closed Wednesday and Thursday, with the wind-chill factor reaching 48 degrees below zero Fahrenheit on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
Harrington said most insects produce "antifreeze proteins and other compounds to protect their cells from freezing and dying." If it gets too cold, though, this natural antifreeze could cease to function properly.
"The concentration of the antifreeze proteins or the extent of the expression could be inadequate," she explained. "We have examples of moderate overwintering capacity that suggests that the evolved level of expression of these proteins is important."
Despite the cold, the drop in temperature is consistent with the type of extreme weather expected with global climate change, according to NASA scientists. As a result, it’s possible these cold snaps might become even more frequent in the future.
If so, will that mean fewer mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects will survive the winters? It’s possible, at least in the short term, Harrington noted. "But as they evolve and adapt, they could overcome this."
It's also possible the cold snaps could adversely impact the predators of mosquitoes, such as birds, bats, dragonflies and frogs. If they get hit harder than the mosquitoes, it could lead to a rise in vector populations.
"Until we have a better understanding of the complexities of climate change impacts on vectors," Harrington said, "it is hard to predict."
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.
Leave a Comment:
How can we be so sure about anything anymore? From scorched earth to floods to everything in between. Is this the new normal now?
If you mean by "normal" that things change? Yes.
If colder weather means fewer mosquitos then why does Canada have a terrible mosquito problem??
No kidding. We in Minnesota slap ourselves silly every summer, and this winter's chill is about average. I wonder if our New York entimologist thinks all mosquitoes are city cissified.
Now, the DROUGHT...THAT might have an impact.
The important take away from this piece is "Until we have a better understanding of the complexities of...". This is related to the fact that science does not establish theories (not "just theories" but the ones you can take to the bank in trying to understand the universe such as evolution and germ theory) as fast as we humans like to get about doing stuff such as burning up more fossil fuels than the ecosystem can handle or gobbling antioxidants before anyone really knows how cells work at the level antioxidants are supposed to operate. I refer you to this article in Scientific American on antioxidants (sorry fantastically lucrative supplement industry) as a case in point;
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=free-radical-shift
I recommend that writers cut/paste/use MS Word to review their stories.
"temperature at 6 degrees below zerp Fahrenheit?" Zerp? Come on!
Maybe hire a proofreader?
Where the heck is the global warming we were promised?
You weren't promised that every day would be warmer than it was last year. The average temperature is rising, but you know that.
Yes, climate change over time is normal. The earth's climate is in a constant state of flux. Humans do not cause it but probably add to it.
I think the global warming has more to do with melting ice caps that cause oceans to rise and make everyone have crazy weather, not that everyone will experience warmer weather. As for mosquito predators, the city arial sprayed right as the dragonflies were out and about last summer, it couldn't have been good for the dragonfly population.
This might be true for the 1st hatching of the season, but by the 2nd hatching, all bets are off. Parts of northern Minnesota often report the coldest temps in the lower-48 US. The mosquitoes there seem to to just fine, much to the consternation of the residents and tourists.
Unfortunately this is not the case in Texas. We no longer have a winter, just 9 months of summer. :-(
Yeah, I always thought this was a myth, considering Alaska and Canada having terrible mosquito problems. Maybe the mosquitoes up there are genetically different than those further south. I'd have like to see the entomologist discus this.
so basically to sum it up: we dont know @!$%#.
Yeah - this was real informative.
Zerp a de do dah
Zerp a de day.
My oh my
what a freaking cold day.
Plenty of gases
heading my way
zerpa de do dah
zerpa de ay
They finally changed the zerp to zero. Hooked on phonics worked for me ;)
It seems no matter what happens they claim global warming. Last article I read said because it was getting warmer we would be getting more tropical diseases. There is a lot of money in trying to scare the population, just ask Gore. Major problem is the earth just can't hold the mass population explosion.
Glenn, I think you've been thrown off by the word "warming". The concern of global warming isn't that we'll all be hot but rather that the climate will change from human intervention faster than agriculture, population densities and ecosystems can adapt to that change. Warm is an unfortunate choice in words as it also causes some cold phenomena, even though the overall trending is towards warmer temps. Warm air in one place can force colder air from another, such as Canada, causing colder temps. Coming from NH I'll happily say I'd be all for a general increase in temperature - but 8 days ago I was outside in a t-shirt, today I will die in about 8 minutes in a t-shirt. Not exactly normal weather trends for us.
Oh good grief. The Earth has LOTS of room yet for people. We are not even close to being overpopulated.
Yeah, NC? Then tell my neighbors to keep their cars off my driveway! Let them know that the earth has LOTS of room.
Everything in balance, everything in moderation. And the problem with reduced skeeter populations is that so many other "higher" species depend upon their larvae as a primary food source which in turn means reduced yields for fisheries etc. Fascinating stuff.
In the end we're all DEAD !!!
Just read in the paper that 120 years ago that the weather was so nice in the northwest that farmers were starting to plow their fields. Oh, the good old days.
From personal experience, I'm not sure frigid cold means less mosquitos. For years I have guided fishing trips to central Quebec where it is plenty cold each and every winter. And every year in mid - June the mosquitos are there in droves. Its unbearable in the evening. They seem to always survive the -20 C.
Article by John Roach? ha ha ha I've been seeing some stink bugs in my house lately - guess they're escaping the cold. I spoze instead of lots of mosquitos, we'll have plenty of stink bugs to deal with
This global warming is so depressing.
It is not mosquitoes in general nitwits. It is the local species of mosquito. An Aedes mosquito from the coast of Mexico would not survive freezing temps but one in Minnesota would. The extreme shift in temps has already happened in Mexico. Here on the Coast it has been getting hotter over the past decade with longer hot weather than in the past. At the same time, almost freezing temps are recorded in the winter which never happened in the past. If you had extreme cold every winter, mosquitoes would adapt as would all animals. If you have extreme cold only once in a while then they will not.
For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.
You may thin the bugs out this summer. But some will survive, and because of the cold some of them will re-invent their God given anti-freeze protein into a more cold tolerant variant, and sooner or later, BINGO, there will be clouds of bugs.
If temps are getting warmer, how did the dead bugs from the super cold before survive to thrive last summer if the larvae from their ancestors froze to death? Huh?
Global warming my eye. Rubbish I say. This is a natural process. Colder for 400 years and then warmer the next 400 with a few outliers thrown in is all.
A few mosquitoes are still a few too many .
I am very sure global warming/climatechange/gunviolence is merely a liberal agenda to imprison freedom.
Here in Florida--Fort Meyers--the mosquito control sprayed in the Gulf of Mexico---killed sand fleas in the sand and fish--they had to stop-----in Volusia county--the mosquito sprayed so much--the honey bee got killed off--nothing to poloniate the orange tree blosoms and the squash--all under sized--all butter flies killed off
The mosquito control in Volusia County--Florida sprayed with----DIBR0M----
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATION-----This product is toxic to fish--birds--and other wildlife. Keep out of any body of water. Do not contaminate water when disposing of equipment washwaters or waste----per AMVAC CHEMICAL CORPORATION-----4100 E. WASHINGTON BLVD.--LOS ANGELES, CA 90023-4406------- Ph: 323-264-3910 FAX: 323-268-1028