Temperatures May Not Feel Springlike, But It's Warm Enough To Bring Out Bees, Butterflies
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's not your imagination. There are a lot of bugs out and about, even though Mother Nature cannot decide if spring is here to stay.
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum curator of urban ecology Steve Sullivan said bees have been active all winter eating the honey in their hives, need to make more and have sufficient flowers from which they can choose. He said morning quilt butterflies hibernated as adults the entire winter, ready to appear on the first warm day.
In addition to the beauty, Sullivan said there are bothersome flies and gnats.
"There are some species, like fungus gnats, that really like this time of year," he said. "As the snow melts and the spring rains come it really encourages the right kind of fungus to grow."
He said spring is difficult on the squirrel population because they have eaten up much of what they stored for the winter, if not all, and Sullivan said there is little food to replace it. But a starved squirrel can be a feast for blow flies.
Nor is the activity limited to bugs. He says Illinois chorus frogs are already singing and garter snakes are slithering around, looking to mate. Sullivan says it just seems early because we humans are out more this spring than last.