Meet the plant pest that ‘dances’ to scare off its predators

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2021

Also known as dancing aphids, wooly aphids or beech blight aphids, when a colony of these pests are disturbed, they lift their fuzzy hind ends high into the air and sway back and forth in unison as a warning. They aren’t harmful to humans, but when they feed on apple tree seedlings they can interfere with the tree’s growth. They spend time feeding on alder trees, beech trees or apple trees where their group movements look like a synchronized dance routine.