Woolly apple aphid
The woolly apple aphid is a tiny bug that wears a fluffy white coat, like a little bit of cotton wool. Under the fluff its body is reddish brown or purple. You can find whole fluffy groups of them on the twigs of apple trees.
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Fun facts
If you squash one, it leaves a blood red mark.
Its fluffy white wax may keep it clean from its own sticky honeydew and help hide it from enemies.
One mother aphid can have up to five babies a day, without needing a dad.
Its babies are salmon pink and only grow their fluffy coat once they settle down to eat.
A tiny wasp is used by farmers to keep these aphids under control.
Most asked questions about Woolly apple aphid
?What is the white fluff on apple trees?
It is often the woolly apple aphid. The fluff is wax that the tiny bugs make to cover themselves.
?Is the woolly apple aphid harmful?
It cannot hurt people, but it sucks sap and can damage the twigs and roots of apple trees.
?How big is the woolly apple aphid?
It is tiny, only up to 2 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eriosoma lanigerum
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Aphididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
- Lives on
- North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Woolly aphid, American blight
Where the facts come from
- Eriosoma lanigerum (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 Sanjay Acharya. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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