Parker County —
The recent cold weather will probably do little to Parker County’s peaches or pests, local and area experts say, but cold tender shrubs may suffer some setbacks.
“It’s not going to hurt the peaches. Their buds are tight,” county extension agent Jon Green said, “but I don’t know that it’s going to have a big time effect on the insects.”
Mike Merchant, a professor and entomology specialist for the extension service, agrees.
“It is extremely difficult to predict the insect populations from the weather,” Merchant said. “There are so many factors. But North Texas insects are pretty well-adapted, and I expect no major die-offs for the coming year.”
“Fire ants and mosquitoes will not be greatly affected,” he said, “but we probably won’t see high numbers of ticks. They seem to suffer more from the cold weather.”
Temperature has a bigger impact, Merchant said, when it drops suddenly, giving insects no time to acclimate.
“I think that probably characterizes our winter this year,” he said. “When the cold spell came, it was already cold outside.”
“There are really not a lot of good studies on this,” he admitted. “We kind of flip a coin around here.”
See the printed version of The Weatherford Democrat for additional coverage.
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