Deep freeze may reduce insects

Press Herald - People who know bugs and trees say there could be an upside to the sustained freezing temperatures that have challenged Mainers for more than a month, besides providing ideal conditions for ice fishing and pond hockey.

The devastating winter moth and hemlock woolly adelgid – and possibly the brown-tail moth and spruce budworm – may be especially susceptible to subzero temperatures that set in just after Christmas, said Jim Dill, a pest management specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.