How do insects survive winter?

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How do insects survive the cold temperatures of winter? Many insects seem to disappear during winter and reappear in spring. Where do they go?

In this video I talk about the various strategies that insects use to survive the chill of winter. Insects have an advantage over most other animals because of their life cycles.

Check out the video to see how it works for them.

In the video I refer to the following ‘one minute bugs’ videos. Please click the link if you want to see them:
Green scarab beetle
Tea-tree flower galls
Aphid mummies

As usual please let know what you think of the video.

Scarab beetles return

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This is a story about the green scarab beetle (Diphucephala colaspidoides). This beetle occurs in south-eastern Australia including the Grampians region where I live, and the beetles usually feed on native foliage such as tea-tree, melaleuca and wattles.

Back in 2006 these beetles caused damage to grapevines, rose bushes and fruit trees in this region, something they rarely do here.  Why was the spring of 2006 different? And why do these beetles swarm sometimes? These questions and more are answered in this video.

As usual please drop me a comment if you like the video. Thanks for watching!

Melon aphids rule?

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Melon aphids are infesting my zucchini plants. Should I be worried?

Melon aphids (Aphis gossypii) are major pests of lots of different plants throughout the world. I first had them on my cucumber plants a couple of months ago, and now they have moved onto my zucchini plants.

What did I do? Spray the aphids with insecticide? Pull the plants out?

Check the video to find out!

What would you have done? Please let me know in the comments.