Are you bitten by mosquitoes in winter? It's normal. Insects have their own unique ways to survive the winter.

According to common sense, insects seem unable to survive the cold winter, but the fact is that even in the coldest months of winter, a few mosquito bites will inexplicably appear on your body. Could it be that scientists have really bred cold-resistant mosquitoes?

In fact, the inability of insects to survive the winter is just a cognitive limitation, not true. In fact, insects can not only survive the harsh winter, but also have a variety of ways to survive the winter. In fact, a little thought will make you understand that insects are very ancient creatures. As early as 300 million years ago, they became the first rulers of the earth's land. If they can't even survive a small winter, how can they reproduce to this day?

Different insects have their own unique ways of dealing with severe cold, and these methods can basically be divided into four categories, namely: clothing, food, shelter and transportation.

The bag moth is a common lepidopteran insect in the area south of the Yangtze River in my country. It relies on "wearing clothes" to survive the winter. The bag moth is also known as the "蓑蛾". As the name suggests, this interesting insect can use the materials around it to sew a "蓑衣" for itself, which can keep out the cold and avoid danger. The bag moth can bite the surrounding branches, bark, and leaves as raw materials, and wrap them up by spinning silk to make a 蓑衣. The mature larvae can survive the cold winter in this 蓑衣. The bag moth is a sexually dimorphic insect. The female moth has no wings throughout her life and must stay in the 蓑衣.

The second way insects survive the winter is by "eating", and the yellow-billed wasp is one of the representatives.

What is the most dangerous thing for insects in winter? In fact, it is not the cold itself, but the freezing caused by the cold. Insects contain a lot of water in their bodies. Once the water freezes, the sharp ice crystals will pierce the cells, causing necrosis of the body. Therefore, if they want to survive the cold winter, they must try to prevent the water in their bodies from freezing. How to do it? Just eat. Take the larvae of the yellow-beaked grub as an example. They will eat themselves into a fat ball before the cold winter comes.

The increase in the fat ratio in insects helps to expel excess water, which significantly lowers the freezing point in the insects' bodies and reduces the lethality of cold to the insects.

In the summer, insects eat mainly for reproduction, but when autumn is approaching, the purpose of eating becomes to store fat. Adequate fat reserves are the secret of insects to survive the winter. The third way for insects to survive the winter is to "live", and the disgusting mosquitoes rely on this method to survive the winter. Culex is a common mosquito in northern my country. When the weather turns cold, these mosquitoes will hide themselves in the cracks of trees or under the eaves of houses. It would be great if they could ambush in human houses in advance.

That’s why we get bitten even in winter, because these pesky mosquitoes hide in our homes.

However, among insects that spend the winter in a shelter, mosquitoes are actually relatively low-level, because their ability to survive the winter depends entirely on whether they can find a good shelter, which actually requires some luck, while some insects can take the initiative, such as longhorn beetles. Longhorn beetles are a typical wood-boring insect that lays its eggs directly in the tree trunk. When winter comes, they seal the hole and spend the winter safely.

The fourth way insects overwinter is "travel".

We know that some birds will migrate to warmer areas before winter arrives, and some insects also have this ability. For example, the common armyworms in southern my country in winter actually migrate from Inner Mongolia. Isn't it incredible? Even more incredible is that the monarch butterfly in the United States migrates nearly 5,000 kilometers from North America to Mexico every year to spend the winter. This migration ability far exceeds that of many types of migratory birds. So, don't say "summer insects can't talk about ice". In fact, it's just that we don't know enough about insects.

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