If you live in the southeast, you may have noticed a little brown bug that you have never seen before. No, you are not crazy. According to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), this little creature first made an appearance here in November of 2009 in Barrow County, Georgia. Now, in August of 2011, this little insect can be found in 143 Georgia counties, all South Carolina counties, 42 North Carolina counties and 5 Alabama counties (UGA CAES).
The Megacopta cribraria, or “Kudzu Bug” as it has become known as, is mainly located in Indian and China but can also be found in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. There they feed on kudzu and other legumes such as beans and peas. However they do not actually eat the bean itself. They suck the sap from a host plant, which weakens it and will stunt its growth. While the typical lifespan of the Kudzu Bug is seven weeks, the chemistry of the host plant can give the insect a longer time of fertility, which in turn causes it to eat on more plants in a shorter amount of time.
While kudzu appears to be a main contributor to this insect’s diet, soy and peanuts currently play a small role in that diet. While the south is not a huge contributor to soybean production, the United States contributes to half of the world’s supply. The top five soybean states are Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Indiana (Economic Research Service (ERS)). The Kudzu bugs are already in North Carolina. All it would take is this bug jumping from Virginia to Kentucky to Indiana for it to begin munching on those soybean fields.
The bigger more imminent threat is to peanut production. The United States is the third largest producer of peanuts, with Georgia being the top producing state. Alabama and North and South Carolina, the other state currently infested with the Kudzu Bugs, are among the top eight peanut producing states in the US (Soyatech). While they do not appear to be eating the peanut plants yet, according to Wayne Gardner, an Extension Entomologist from the University of Georgia, all it would take is a slight change in genetics for the Kudzu Bug to begin attacking them.
Of course, they would have to run out of Kudzu first. Kudzu is an invasive species brought over in 1876 from Japan, and continues to grow about 150,000 acres annually. It now covers approximately seven million acres across the southeast, with roots growing as deep as twelve feet. While we have seen a 32 percent reduction in kudzu growth, Scientists are not optimistic that these little bugs will be able to eradicate it completely (UGA CAES). There are hopeful that these bugs will weaken the roots and reduce kudzu’s ability to climb which will give our plants a real fighting chance at sunlight.
But is this enough of a reason to keep these bugs around? Yes, they are controlling the kudzu population, but they are spreading almost as fast as the kudzu. Within two years this bug went from being seen in one or two counties, to being spotted in four different states. Before too long, they will be seen anywhere there is kudzu, and possibly begin destroying our soybean and peanut fields across the country. If you have an exterminator come spray kudzu near your house, within days you will have a new swarm take over. During the winter, these insects will try to find any way into your house to escape the cold. You will find them in your attic and basement and coming in through the cracks in the wall. If you try to smash them, they give off a horrid stench, and may even stain your carpet and walls. Even if you vacuum them up, your vacuum will smell for days. Homeowners in highly populated areas of Kudzu Bugs have complained due to the prominent amount that they find crawling all over the outside of their houses. These bugs are definitely taking over and not looking to leave any time soon.
So what do we need to do about this new bug? They have proven very helpful in eliminating the kudzu population, but is the risk to our soy and peanut production too great to keep them here? While there are some pesticides that will “scare away” the kudzu bugs temporarily, we do not yet have a pesticide that actually kills these bugs. Without a way to control them while they eat our kudzu, we could be looking at serious agricultural ramifications if do not act now.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Invasive Insect (Bean Plataspid) Poses Risk to Soybean Crops and Infests Homes in Southeastern States, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Lee Shearer, Kudzu-eating bugs a boon … sort of, Online Athens
Sharon Dowdy, Kudzu bug spreads across Southern states, University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (UGA CAES)
Soyatech, Peanut Facts, Soyatech LLC
Economic Research Service (ERS), U.S. Soybean Industry: Background Statistics and Information, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)