Will the Emerald Ash Borer Survive the Winter Cold?

“These guys are pretty good at burrowing in underneath the bark of the tree and that tree helps to insulate them from the bulk of the bad weather,” says Megan Abraham, director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

As a result, Abraham says it takes a long cold spell with really cold temperatures to kill off an emerald ash borer beetle. According to Purdue University, it would have to get down to about minus 28 degrees.

Kerry Bridges is an arborist with Tree Guy Incorporated in Bloomington. He says the emerald ash borer is not only used to Indiana winters, but it’s survived in much colder areas like Canada.

An adult emerald ash borer feeds off a leaf. (Purdue University Department of Entomology photo/John Obermeyer)

“I don’t foresee significant change or restriction of that bug’s reproduction and spread,” Bridges says.

READ MORE: ‘Tree Doctor’ App To Help Homeowners With Emerald Ash Borer

What’s more, emerald ash borer and some other insects have a unique way of keeping warm.

Purdue entomologist Cliff Sadof says the reason your nose starts to run when it’s cold out is because your body is trying to keep it from freezing. Mixing mucus with water lowers the freezing point. Sadof says insects like the emerald ash borer do something similar.

“But they are changing the composition of the fluids inside their body, so they act like antifreezes,” he says.

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the emerald ash borer has devastated ash trees in every county in the state. Bridges encourages homeowners that are having problems with emerald ash borer to keep treating their trees…

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How The Emerald Ash Borer Will Survive Indiana’s Cold Snap, Indiana Public Media News from WFIU Public Radio and WTIU Public Television, Indiana University, written by Rebecca.