Weeds, wildflowers and West Nile could flourish after DFW’s warm winter

Baseballs and bugs are flying, tree branches are budding and yards are turning from brown to green.

Spring has arrived early in North Texas, and while signs of a new season are abundant, questions about what the unusually warm winter will bring remain.

Here are five things to keep in mind:

An invasion of bugs

Insects are already buzzing about, which doesn’t bode well for the next few months.

“One of biggest problems we’re going to see is the insect issue,” said Steve Chaney, Texas A&M Agrilife county agent — horticulture. “We’re already seeing fleas and ticks in back yards and we may see mosquito issues down the road.”

And with mosquitoes comes the threat of West Nile virus.

Joon Lee, an associate professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, traps and tests mosquitoes for West Nile on behalf of local health departments. After studying the data from 2013 to 2016, Lee said warm winters appear to cause an earlier and longer West Nile season.

Mike Merchant, a Texas A&M Agrilife extension service urban entomologist, said summer rains may have helped avert a major West Nile outbreak last year, but he said a warm winter preceded the deadly 2012 West Nile epidemic in North Texas.

Of far less serious concern are reports of people seeing insects such as the multicolored Asian lady beetle and paper wasps inside their homes, Merchant said.

“All of the bugs that crawled into the walls last fall are coming out of lights in the ceiling or cracks in the walls,” said Merchant. “We’ve been getting a lot of calls.”

The bugs are mostly a nuisance, but Merchant warns that any beetles sprayed with bug killer will often die inside a home’s walls and leave behind a nasty odor.

In the Rio Grande Valley, the songs of summer have already been heard.

The sounds of giant cicadas, long associated with a summertime evening, were reported as early as Feb. 17.

Lawn-and-garden needs

While you should have already applied a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent weed growth in your lawn, there’s plenty of other work to be done outdoors.

“It’s time to get out and apply some moisture to plant material and trees in your yard,” Chaney said.

That doesn’t mean running your sprinkler system indiscriminately. Instead, run a hose in the garden beds and near trees. Apply mulch and get your beds ready for spring.

Randall Archie of Archie’s Gardenland in west Fort Worth, said many customers are eager to begin planting flowers and get an early start on their vegetable gardens. Archie advises his customers to keep an eye on the 10-day forecast when purchasing plants this early in the season.

“The average last frost is mid-March and odds are we’re likely going to see another frost,” Archie said. “I’m trying to tell everybody to be cautious.”

Peaches look good, for now

Many varieties of peaches have begun to flower. The next six weeks will be crucial, said Jimmy Hutton, co-owner of Ridgmar Farmers Market and part of the Hutton family, which is one of the largest peach growers in Parker County.

While Dallas/Fort Worth Airport only dropped to 40 degrees Thursday morning, some areas, including Alliance Airport saw freezing temperatures. Any hard freeze after March 20 could seriously damage this year’s crop.

“Spring has sprung,” Hutton said. “If you get nervous in this game, you might as well get out.”

It isn’t just frost and freezes. Peaches are also vulnerable to spring hailstorms, and some of the varieties need more chilling hours to get that sweet flavor.

“We really need to wait until mid-April and see where we are,” Hutton said. “The next 30-45 days are very important.”

Bring on the bluebonnets

The University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is predicting an earlier and longer wildflower season for many parts of Texas.

“Central Texas has already begun seeing some early wildflower blooms, particularly in the central core of Austin on I-35 and MoPac Expressway,” said Lee Clippard, a wildflower center spokesman. “This week, I’ve seen good stands of Texas bluebonnets and greenthread growing along I-35 near downtown Austin. I’ve also seen some pink evening primrose, Indian paintbrush and Indian blanket (which is normally a late spring bloomer) peeking out.”

The North Texas outlook is not as clear.

“The U.S. Geological Survey and National Phenology Network said that plants are leafing out in the Central Texas area about 20 days early this year,” Clippard said. “It looks like they are almost as early in the DFW area as well.”

Sponsors of the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails, which runs April 1-30 and has 40 miles of mapped trails, have said they will start monitoring for early blooms in mid-March because of the warm winter. They will post updated photos on the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Facebook page when wildflowers start blooming.

“There are areas along the roadways that will bloom early, but the fields will bloom later,” said Gina Rokas, tourism director of the Ennis Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’re thinking we may have an above-average season with the warm weather.”

Rokas recommends two Facebook pages for keeping up with wildflower sightings across the state: Texas Bluebonnet Sightings and Texas Wildflower Report. The bluebonnet sightings Facebook page already has posted early wildflower reports for the San Antonio and Brenham areas. Scroll down to see the latest posts.

Chaney, the Texas A&M horticulturist, agrees that the season may start earlier and last longer.

“There are already a lot of weeds out there,” Chaney said. “It could be a problem.”

What about a late cold snap?

The average last freeze for Dallas-Fort Worth is March 13, but the latest freeze on record occurred April 13, 1957. The most recent freeze this year was Jan. 8, when it dipped to 20 degrees.

“If you think April is surely the last gasp of winter, think again,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Huckaby. “Wise County had freezes in both May 2013 and May 2014. Weatherford dipped to 32 degrees in May 2013. Even though there has been a trend toward warmer winters, our area has seen some of the latest freezes on record in recent years.”

The long-range outlooks continue to predict above-normal temperatures for March and April, but Huckaby said brief outbreaks of wintry weather are still possible.

“We were very warm during March 2007 (fourth warmest at the time), but it snowed in April,” Huckaby said. “In fact, that Easter weekend, Waco’s 24-hour snowfall total (3.5 inches) is the largest of any event they’ve had in the last 35 years.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Weeds, wildflowers and West Nile could flourish after DFW’s warm winter."