Injury and Pest Symptoms

• Adults prefer to infest 8- to 10-inch soybeans at field edge
• Kudzu bugs have piercing-sucking mouthparts
• Kudzu bugs feed on stems and leaves, not pods
• Feeding induces stress on soybeans
  • Creates brown lesions on stems
  • Reduces pods per plant
  • Reduces seeds per pod
  • Reduces seed size
• "Honeydew" excretions cause sooty mold on leaves
• Hundreds of adults and nymphs may occur on a single soybean plant
• Large populations cause "green stem syndrome" and delay soybean maturity
• Average soybean yield loss of 18% (range 0 to 47%) was measured in Georgia and South Carolina
• Adults will fly from early-maturity to late-maturity soybeans in late summer

Pest Status and Importance

Pest Facts of the Kudzu Bug

• Common names: kudzu bug, bean plataspid
• Latin name: Megacopta cribraria, family Plataspidae
• Description
  • Adults are shiny, 3.5 to 6 mm (< ¼ inch) long, brown to olive green in color with lighter freckled spots; eyes are red; tail end is broadly rounded
  • Produces a mildly offensive odor when disturbed
  • Nymphs are greenish brown with long hairs

• Similar species:
  • Adult stink bugs are > 3/8" with pointed posterior
• Origin and distribution:
  • Native to eastern Asia and India
  • Invasive pest species in the U.S.
  • First detected in Hoschton, Ga. in October, 2009
  • In 2011, found in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia

Life History of Kudzu bug

• Adults become active in February in Georgia
• Reproduces on kudzu and soybean
• Adults known to fly 1½ miles from kudzu to soybean
• Females lay 26 to 274 eggs
• Development time from egg to adult is 24 to 56 days
• Adult longevity in summer is 23 to 77 days
• 2 to 3 generations occur per year
• Population peaks during September in Georgia
• Adults are attracted to tall, light-colored surfaces such as houses
• Adults are not attracted to lights
• Adults overwinter in leaf litter and under bark

IPM Practices

• Planting
  • The southeastern U.S. is where soybeans are most likely to have economic damage
  • Soybeans do not have to be adjacent to kudzu to be infested
• Insecticide seed treatments
  • Efficacy of seed treatments on early-season populations is unknown
• Scouting
  • Action threshold of “adults present and 1 nymph per sweep” has been suggested by university entomologists to initiate insecticide sprays
• Insecticides
  • Several – but not all – pyrethroids typically provide better efficacy than organophosphates
  • Contact your state extension entomologist for a list of recommended insecticides