Panhandle Florida’s winter of 2023/24 has had some frigid nights. The frosty mornings have not been a rarity.
Even so, there are signs winter is grudgingly retreating. Aside from the occasional warm day, the daylight hours are obviously increasing.
Officially spring is still four and a half weeks away, beginning on March 19, 2024. This growing luminosity, however, is stimulating plants and animals to return to the animated activities for which they are commonly known.
Insect activity is increasing slowly. Anyone venturing into river swamps or wetlands during a warm day or evening will likely encounter a mosquito or two.
The larvae that survived the winter-induced diapause (or suspended animation) are awakening in the warming sunlight. They emerge into the world looking for a mate and a meal.
Queen ants, having grown wings, are preparing to seek out new sites to establish homes. Some termite species will swarm in late winter or early spring, but they have a distinctly different appearance.
Quickly after, eggs are left in still waters to develop and hatch. Given their rate of reproduction, the few in February become the swarms of summer.
Ants, both native and exotic, are venturing further from their nests. No doubt conditions are crowded in the colonies when their members are attempting to stay warm in the winter.
Most nests hold more than one reproducing queen. The warming weather allows these insects to escape overcrowded condition and establish new colonies.
Much like mosquitoes, the queen ants and male escorts are seeking a partner and a permanent site to raise their family. Unlike mosquitoes, ants can temporarily grow a set of four wings and fly to a new home.
Usually overlooked until their numbers reach into the multiple thousands, ant colonies in problematic sites in the home landscapes become challenging to control.
Another sign of the seasonal change is spiders returning to activity in the environment. Living on energy reserves, web weavers are building their sticky snares in dormant perennials and remnants of long deceased annual plants.
With relatively few insects to trap and eat, only the luckiest arachnids will make it to summer. Both males and females will occupy the webs, with the females being far larger than the males.
Those which do not produce webs are hiding in the leaflitter and recesses of decaying logs. They patiently wait for a recently emerged insect to blunder into range, and then ambush them.
These eight-legged predators quickly overwhelm their quarry with physical strength and injected venom. Their first meal of the year builds vigor and prepares them for the next encounter.
North Florida’s little creatures are not alone in their search for nourishment. Residential and migratory birds are supplementing their diets of seeds with tender new bugs.
As the seed and dried berry supplies shrink, the need for nutrition puts the focus on insects and spiders. Only their high reproduction rate saves their species from extinction.
News reports indicate the groundhog saw his shadow two weeks ago, so cold weather will continue until late March. Many migratory birds apparently got the word.
Ponds, swamps and rivers still have a variety of ducks which prefer the occasional chilly day to the snow and ice of latitudes north. If the groundhog is right (depending on the one forecasting), they will be flying north on the first official day of spring.
Leave a Reply