Chinch bug
The chinch bug is a tiny reddish brown bug with white wings and red legs. It sucks juice from grasses like wheat, corn and lawn grass. Crowds of them gather on sunny patches of lawn, and gardeners see them as pests.
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Fun facts
Young chinch bugs are bright red with a white band on the tummy.
It loves hot, dry, sunny weather. Wet weather helps a fungus grow that kills it.
A female lays about 200 eggs in a month.
In winter it hides anywhere it can: under bark, in hedges and even inside mouse nests.
Long ago it was a big problem for farmers. Many switched to growing soybeans, which chinch bugs do not eat.
Most asked questions about Chinch bug
?Do chinch bugs bite people?
No. They only suck juice from grasses.
?How big is a chinch bug?
A grown-up is only about 4 millimetres long, so it is hard to notice.
?Why is it called a chinch bug?
Its name comes from the Spanish word for bed bug, because it smells like one when squashed. It is not related to bed bugs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Blissus leucopterus
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Blissidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Blissidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- True chinch bug
Where the facts come from
- Blissus leucopterus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Christina Butler from Georgia, United States. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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