Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll focus on two scourges of mid-March. We’ll find out what pests will surface as spring arrives and how many potholes the city filled in a one-day blitz over the weekend.
After the seesaw temperatures that have defined 2026 so far, spring — which begins on Friday — could be buggy. Summer could be, too. The entomologist behind the Fordham Tick Index is “cautiously pessimistic,” which means he expects a lot of ticks. The exterminators’ trade group behind something called the Bug Barometer is warning that pests could emerge sooner and in greater numbers than in years when there was less snow. There will be more brown marmorated stink bugs, which are harmless but got their name for a reason. And an expert at the American Museum of Natural History said that the cold-warm-cold-warm merry-go-round could bring more insects that breed in water, like mosquitoes, dragonflies and damselflies. “The winter we had, as difficult as it was for us, was a boon for ticks,” said Thomas Daniels, who maintains the Fordham Tick Index and is the director of the Louis Calder Center, Fordham University’s field station for research in Armonk, N.Y. “A cold, snowy winter is something they like.” Under a snow blanket, he said, it’s warmer than above ground, so they are less likely to freeze to death. And if there are a lot of ticks, “there’ll be a lot of bites,” he said. Black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks, can “start looking for a host” when the temperature climbs past 40 degrees, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than 50 percent of black-legged ticks may carry the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, although an infected tick usually has to remain on someone’s skin for more than 24 hours to transmit Lyme. Daniels advises covering your skin when you go to grassy or wooded places — and checking for ticks when you come in. The drastically fluctuating temperatures over the past couple of months will jump-start pest season, according to Jim Fredericks, a senior vice president of the National Pest Management Association, which is responsible for the Bug Barometer. “The beginning of the winter was kind of mild, so what we had was an opportunity for overwintering pests like the brown marmorated stink bug and the multicolored Asian lady beetle,” he said. The brown marmorated stink bug is an agricultural pest that surfaced in the U.S. in the 1990s. It burrows in walls or between cracks in siding on a building and is usually seen but not smelled. Fredericks said that they don’t bite and don’t spread disease. If they get inside, they can be vacuumed up, although that risks bringing out the odor. Jessica Ware, the curator and chair of the division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, said they smell like bitters, but not like an old-fashioned. How many insects (and ticks, which are arachnids) appear could depend on temperatures and precipitation in the next few weeks, Ware said. Dry weather “actually would be not great for things we like, like fireflies or lightning bugs,” she said. “But it would be great for things like brown marmorated stink bugs.” What about spotted lanternflies, an invasive pest the experts say you should kill? They are only about an inch long and have two distinct pairs of wings, and they seemed to be everywhere back in 2022, from parks and patios to subway stations. “What we’ve seen so far is that they seem to be very patchy,” Ware said — big in Manhattan one summer, “then the next summer it might be the Bronx. The next summer it might be Connecticut.” Northern New Jersey “was full of them” last summer, she said, but South Jersey “didn’t have that many.” WEATHER Expect patchy fog this morning and showers and thunderstorms during the day; the high will be near 61. Rain is expected to continue overnight, with a low of 34. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Friday (Eid al-Fitr). QUOTE OF THE DAY “This is a miracle. It’s a monument, a commitment to public works and a testament to good planning and to everyone who keeps the corridor running.” — David Alff, a University at Buffalo professor and an expert on the Northeast Corridor, on the new Portal North Bridge. It has replaced a 116-year-old swing bridge in New Jersey that often disrupted rail commutes in New Jersey. The latest New York news
Filling 7,200 potholes in one day
Over the weekend, the city conducted what it called a “blitz” against potholes, another headache caused by a winter that has brought heavier-than-average snow and — at times — warmer-than-average temperatures. Repair crews from the city’s Transportation Department filled some 7,200 potholes on Saturday, according to officials, who said that more than 50,000 had been repaired since the beginning of the year. Pothole season typically starts when temperatures edge into the 40s and the moisture from melting snow seeps into the pavement, where freeze-and-thaw cycles turn it into a tire-shredding, suspension-crippling mess of canyons and chasms. “New Yorkers have braved a tough winter,” Mike Flynn, the transportation commissioner, said before the blitz began, “and we can see and feel the resulting potholes from wear and tear on our roads.” The Saturday push against potholes came several days after a 46-year-old man was thrown from his scooter in Queens. It happened on Liberty Avenue, which The New York Post said was “lined with dangerous potholes,” although the Transportation Department said that there had been no previous complaints about potholes in the immediate area of the accident. The man on the scooter, Jaikarran Seenarian, sustained severe head trauma, the police said, and was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. METROPOLITAN DIARY In the city more
Dear Diary: On a Sunday afternoon, I went with my husband and my dog, Babka, an exuberant miniature Bernedoodle, to the dog run at De Witt Clinton Park in Hell’s Kitchen. After running in circles frenetically for a while, she started to sniff at a woman on a bench. Soon, Babka was on the bench sitting snugly between the woman and a man she appeared to be with. “I’m so sorry!” I said, trying to lure Babka off the bench. “Don’t worry about it at all,” the woman said. “I love dogs.” We began chatting about dog breeds, her recent retirement and how much she missed her own dog, who had died not long before. “Do you live around here?” I asked. “You’re welcome to play with Babka whenever you’d like.” “No, I don’t,” she said. “Actually, I’m just visiting. But I’ve been coming to the city a lot more nowadays.” The man looked at her and grinned. “Why don’t you just tell him what’s been bringing you to the city more?” he said. With Babka perched between the two of them, she smiled and told me that a few months earlier she had been visiting her daughter, who lives in the city, when she decided one morning go to a bagel shop to buy breakfast. She had been confused about what to order, and the man, standing behind her in line, had chimed in with suggestions. “And that’s how we met,” she said. “He waited around till my order was ready and then sat at a nearby table to eat and chat some more. He made me laugh so much! Before we parted ways, he nervously asked for my number.” The man put his hand on her shoulder. Nearly 40 minutes later, as Babka and I were getting ready to leave, the woman pulled out her phone. “Do you mind taking a photo of us with your dog in it?” she said. I took a few. “Come to think of it,” she said to the man, “This may actually be our first photo together.” — Lala Tanmoy Das Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Lauren Hard and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
