January and February average temperatures were considerably above average. December, January, and February had cold, windy days but little snow and few, dry windy weather days. Generally the mid-Atlantic states lack temperatures cold enough or cold spells long enough to kill overwintering insects.
Many insects spend the winter in protected locations such as the soil or within plant material.
They reduce their metabolism and some even have a type of antifreeze in their blood. Root rots, canker diseases, and vascular diseases may cause decline and dieback in trees necessitating branch removal or pruning. This wood is often included with that used to create wood chips available for general landscape use. Spread of root rot pathogens via wood chips is not a concern because root rot pathogens are not present above ground in the wood. Since the canker-causing fungi are more or less ubiquitous in the landscape, the increased inoculum level of canker fungi that might survive in wood chips is thought to be insignificant to canker disease initiation.