The warm and sunny weather has more than just the birds enjoying the outdoors.

People are also taking advantage of the spring-like weather along with those of the six-leg variety. "Insects, being cold-blooded, as soon as it starts warming up, things start happening with them,” says Jeff Knight, entomologist, Nevada Department of Agriculture. 

Knight says what's happening now is more common around the first of April. "I'm seeing a lot of activity in my own yard of things that are not normal for another month or so."

Knight says box elders and clover mites tend to come out first. And if the warm weather continues, we'll see even more species. "Definitely, the honey bees will come out and go out and explore. They're not going to find much, at this time."

Eggs generally start hatching once the daily average temperatures are higher than 45-degrees which they have been lately. In years past, we've seen large populations of nuisance insects like Mormon crickets.

By hatching this early they could have more time to lay eggs. But on the flip side they could likely face a deadly cold snap before spring. "Even though there may be food but it cools off for another couple weeks, and maybe rains, hopefully, that will actually take care of the population."

The state and county also keep an eye on mosquito populations, especially with West Nile Virus in our area. Insects react very quickly to weather so it's unknown how the warm temperatures and ongoing drought could affect insects, this year. "We do see things in the insect populations that are key to droughts, over the years. It's just another one of those things we'll have to deal with as it comes along."    

Knight says if temperatures stay high we could also see a higher number of yellow jackets this year. If we end up having a cool spring we could see a lot more bugs like aphids.