I am looking at this prolonged cold from a different point of view, i.e., to see what zones these plants are really in! I am afraid that my "pushing the zone" plants will not recover, in spite of mulching. If I loose a lot of plants, this may be the year I switch back totally to natives. And yet, Mr. Avent's new catalog is calling me...what to do?

I'm hoping it cuts down on insect issues. I'm hoping, also that it helps some of my fruit trees that like a bit more chill hours than they've gotten in the past years, but also hoping it doesn't induce them to flower too early if we get a warm spell.

I'm worried about the plants...but think it will cut down on the pests. The daffodils should enjoy it though. I think we are to see somewhere near 60 towards week end.

I have to steer clear of Mr. Avent's catalog...too tempting!!!

-Frank

I don't think its going to have any real effect on the bugs/insects. They breed so quickly. All it takes is a few of them to survive and they can regain their numbers within a few days of warmth. I was thinking about insects the other day when it was in the high 20's and I saw some sort of crane fly hover around my porch light. It reminded me of a time years ago when I and some friends were hiking on a glacier on Mt. Rainier and some sort of beetle was crawling across the surface of the ice!!!! It's gotta get a lot colder to make a dent in the bug population.

We had a huge ant pile in the yard that froze over and it killed all those little monsters. Some may have ran off and hid but enough died to make me smile after repeated attempts of offing them myself.

Don't kid yourself aezarien, those ant piles are connected by 100 yard underground tunnels. They're still there.

bumblebeez is right. If all it took was a bit of cold we'd be using liquid nitrogen or some such similar non-toxic to kill fireants instead of paying millions to chemical companies for an effective pesticide.

I kicked open a fireant mound in my yard today and they were very much alive and well.

Oh, I'm sure they are not all dead. I'm just celebrating the ones that did die. lol

I certainly hope the cold does not delay the blooming of the maples. They are the first thing to bloom in spring and are an important source of early nectar/pollen for the bees to start growing their population in spring.

I've seen honey bees out all winter so far. I wonder if they do indeed hibernate here. Haven't seen bumblebees though.