Updated July 11, 2025 11:47AM

'John Flannery'

One might hope the upside of the Northeast’s recent bomb cyclone would be fewer surviving bug pests come spring–but that’s unlikely, entomologists say. Ticks survive cold weather by gradually moving water out of their cells, preventing freezing damage, and by insulating themselves under the snow. Bedbugs and stinkbugs likewise employ survival tricks in the cold.