Beech blight aphid
The beech blight aphid is a tiny pale blue bug covered in long white waxy fluff. Thousands of them sit together on beech branches, so the branches look covered in snow. When disturbed, they lift their bottoms and sway from side to side.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Because so many of them dance together, people call it the boogie-woogie aphid.
It makes lots of sweet honeydew, and a black sooty mould grows on it below the colony.
Ants come to collect its sweet honeydew.
You can wash them off a branch with a strong jet of water.
Most asked questions about Beech blight aphid
?Why is it called the boogie-woogie aphid?
Because when disturbed, the whole group lifts their bottoms and sways like they are dancing.
?Do beech blight aphids hurt trees?
Not much. Sometimes a few twigs die, but the tree usually stays healthy.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Grylloprociphilus imbricator
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Aphididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Boogie-woogie aphid
Where the facts come from
- Beech blight aphid (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C., USA. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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