John Matthews
WMAL.com

COLLEGE PARK, MD — (WMAL) The early end of winter is bringing on a early start to bug season.

University of Maryland entymologist Michael Raupp says he’s already seen mosquitoes and stink bugs emerging, and with warm weather more or less here until next fall, he expects a bumper crop of pests to be around the entire time.

Raupp says it never got cold enough this winter to beat back most pests, so they’ll be out and active earlier than ever.

“Kudzu bugs, Harlequin bugs, brown marmorated Stink bugs – those guys that invade your home. We’re not going to see as much winter mortality,” says Raupp. “That means we’re going to see more of these bugs emerging than we do in a typical year when we have some of those cold temperatures,” he added.

Raupp says the early start of spring will just give bugs more time than usual to regenerate, so there will not be an early end to bug season… As each round dies, another will emerge until it gets cold again.

Raupp says if there’s one sliver of good news, it’s that “good” bugs – the bugs that eat pest bugs – will also emerge early to fight off the pests.

Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Public Domain CC0 via Pixabay)