It’s raining! Wait. Let me repeat that. IT’S RAINING!!!!

Since it’s a rainy day here in Central Texas, I decided to answer a question I often get when I speak to children about insects. Where do they go when it rains? If you want to know what they do when it gets cold, see this post.

We all know that insects don’t carry around umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain, but should they? It often depends on the insect’s size and the heaviness of the rainfall. Obviously, the heavier the rainfall, the more difficult it would be for insects to fly. Some insects are capable of flying during rainfall and can withstand direct hits from raindrops (see this post from Scientific American on researchers bombarding mosquitoes with raindrops). Other insects do not fare so well so they tend to hide. Hiding in protected places such as under leaves, leaf litter on the ground, under rocks or logs, cracks, crevices, under the eaves of buildings.