Ask Tim: Where are all the crickets and yellow jackets? | Tim Woodward's Columns | Idaho Statesman
Q: Every summer since we came to Boise in 1980, we've heard crickets. With the warmer weather, we've opened up the house and the silence is obvious. The yellow jackets also seem milder this summer. What's up?
BOB D., E-MAIL
A: You're right. Usually we're hearing crickets by now. They're a sound of late summer. But not this year, at least not yet.
If you've used poison to kill pests, you may have zapped crickets as well.
"It can kill all bugs, not just those you want to kill," master gardener Annie Jack of the University of Idaho Extension Service said.
The main reason, however, is weather-related. Crickets, according to horticulturalist Susan Bell, don't like hot, dry weather. If you began hearing some last week, it may have been due to the mid-week cool-down. And with the arrival of cooler, wetter weather in the weeks ahead, crickets should once again be lulling us to sleep.
That brings us to the yellow jackets.
Haven't missed them, have you? You can actually fire up the grill this summer without having to wrestle them for your burger.
U of I entomologist Frank Merickel says "we're seeing the same thing up here in Moscow. My hunch is that the overwintering and spring colony establishment wasn't very successful."
That, too, could be weather-related. Yellow jacket colonies die in the fall, except for the newly inseminated queens. They survive the winter and start new colonies in the spring. A late spring freeze, Merickel said, could kill them.
A cold, wet spring also encourages fungus growth, hampering the queens' efforts to forage for food. That also affects the size and number of colonies.
All of which means you can picnic in peace.
"I haven't heard anyone complaining," Merickel said.
Update: The Chick-fil-A scheduled to open in October in BSU's SUB won't be the only one in Idaho. An e-mail from a company spokesperson said a second will be built in Idaho by 2012.
In Ammon.
Ammon? (That's over by Idaho Falls, in case you've never heard of it.)
My e-mail asking why there wasn't answered.
Send questions to asktim@idahostatesman.com or Ask Tim, Idaho Statesman, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707.
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