Soybean aphid
The soybean aphid is a tiny, soft bug that sucks the sap of soybean plants. It comes from Asia, but it has travelled to North America too. In summer it can grow from a few aphids into huge crowds very quickly.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It spends the winter as an egg on buckthorn bushes. The eggs can survive cold down to about minus 34 degrees.
In spring, aphids with wings are born and fly off to find soybean fields.
In summer the mums give birth to live babies without needing any dads at all.
There can be about 15 generations on soybean plants in one summer, because each one grows up in just 2 to 16 days.
In North America it was first found in Wisconsin in the year 2000, and it probably came from Japan.
Most asked questions about Soybean aphid
?What does the soybean aphid eat?
It sucks the sap of soybean plants and buckthorn bushes.
?Why is the soybean aphid a pest?
When many of them suck sap from a soybean plant, the plant grows badly and makes fewer beans.
?Is the soybean aphid harmful to people?
No. It does not bite or sting people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aphis glycines
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Aphididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
- Lives on
- Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Soybean aphid (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 Helge Klaus Rieder. CC0, 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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