From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Tue Oct 10 2000 - 15:30:30 MDT
"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> "Michael S. Lorrey"
>
> > ...I know from personal
> > experience that flies frequently hybernate in a frozen state in the cracks of
> > logs and elsewhere. I've seen this from bringing into my parents house pieces
> of
> > wood for their wood stove that were frozen solid in ambient temperatures
> of -10
> > to -30 degrees F (not counting wind chill), and stacking them next to the
> stove
> > to warm up and unfreeze. Doing so causes flies hybernating in the cracks to
> come
> > back to life, and obviously annoy us by buzzing around once they recover. I
> have
> > also witnessed a fly, frozen in the crack of a stup of a tree, come back to
> life
> > as the sun rose and began to warm it above the freezing point. I do not know
> > what sort of flies you are using, but the ones I refer too seem to be some
> sort
> > of wild house fly that is common to these parts, but I am no entomologist.
>
> You don't need to be an entomologist to know about insect suspended animation.
>
> Mosquitoes also winter over in a state of suspended animation. If they didn't,
> one winter would wipe them all out.
Actually, skeeters eggs hybernate in the unfrozen mud at the bottom of streams
and ponds, as do all other insects whose lifecycle starts in the water (as any
fly fisherman can tell you).
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