The cyst protects the eggs from adverse soil conditions. Eggs hatch in the spring about the same time soybeans are planted. Not all eggs hatch and some remain dormant in cysts for several years. The majority of juveniles fail to find a soybean root and die of starvation. Juveniles that find a root enter it and begin feeding using a hypodermic needle-like structure called a stylet.
Juveniles develop into either adult males or females.
Males mate with females, leave the root and die. Fertilized females remain in the root, and their bodies begin to swell. About 28 day hatching, the swollen bodies of SCN females break through the root surface. These small white bodies are visible with the naked eye but can be seen more easily using a hand lens. As the white female ages, her body begins to turn yellow and eventually a golden brown.