The various generations make their homes in different host plants and in different parts of each plant. So while farmers may manage to kill off aphids from their crop plants, another generation may be waiting in the wings in nearby grasses and trees. Right now scientists are still trying to get a firm understanding of the newly emerged soybean aphid, its life cycles and feeding habits. What is known is that in China the aphids reduced seed yields by nearly 30 percent. That could translate into thousands, maybe millions of dollars of lost crop sales for U.S. farmers.
Past experience shows aphid infestations can be costly.
And healthy populations of the aphid still reside in Colorado. Staffey and others are busy looking for a local natural predator of the soybean aphid which they might enhance to ward off the insect. It appears that the soybean aphid may be more difficult to thwart since it seems to be able to adapt to both dry and wet soil environments. Still, preliminary studies suggest at least one hopeful fact. It appears the soybean aphid is not normally protected by ants.