Adding insult to injury, the dry conditions that many growers are experiencing in eastern Iowa and Illinois are bringing additional problems: two-spotted spider mites. These eight-legged arthropods feed on a variety of plants and are typically not a pest of soybeans during cool, humid summers. Under these conditions, the mites are kept in low numbers by fungi that attack arthropods. When this control is disrupted, spider mites are capable of reproducing quickly in large numbers
