In the Central Great Plains area, more than a million and a half acres of wheat were abandoned or destroyed, and the yield of many additional acres was seriously reduced. The greenbug, like other species of aphids, is born alive. All adults, for practical purposes, are females. Each female gives birth to living young at the rate of about two per day, although at times during warm weather, as many as five to six offspring may be produced each day. The young, which are called nymphs, resemble the adults, but are smaller.
Growth is rapid and nymphs reach maturity within six to seven days following birth.
This extremely high rate of reproduction is one of the reasons why aphids, and greenbugs in particular, are such serious pests. To gain a better idea of an aphid' s reproductive capacity, assume you start with one mature greenbug per plant. From this one insect, you might expect a total population of 25 to 50 insects after one week. Upon entering the second week, the nymphs that were produced during the first couple of days would be starting to mature and reproduce. Shortly thereafter, production per day would be in the hundreds, and soon into the thousands.