In this Sept. 30, 2011 photo, Clemson University doctoral student Nick Seiter shows a sweep net filled with “kudzu bugs” caught in a test plot in Blackville, S.C. Seiter is studying the invasive Asian bug, which is wreaking havoc on soybean crops.By ALLEN G. BREED
AP National Writer
BLACKVILLE, S.C. – Kudzu – the “plant that ate the South” – has finally met a pest that’s just as voracious. Trouble is, the so-called “kudzu bug” is also fond of another East Asian transplant that we happen to like, and that is big money for American farmers.
Soybeans.
“When this insect is feeding on kudzu, it’s beneficial,” Clemson University entomologist Jeremy Greene says as he stands in a field swarming with the brown, pea-sized critters. “When it’s feeding on soybeans, it’s a pest.”