| At
first glance it may look like undissolved
light-coloured fertiliser granules
when you part the grass. A closer
look will show that small white or
yellow sacs, the texture of felt,
are attached to the grass stems. When
squashed, these ooze red goo.
You have a lawn pest known as felted
coccid in Australia (or Rhodes grass
mealybug in the USA). Although not
a scale, it is also called by the
common name of Rhodes grass scale.
Felted coccid (Antonina graminis)
is a mealybug found near the crown,
under leaf sheaths and at the nodes
of the lower stems of many grasses.
The readily visible stages are waxy
sacs that cover the bodies of late
juvenile and adult forms. The adults
are inside the sac and have a dark
brown to purplish sack-like body 1.5–3.0mm
long. They have no legs. The sac itself
has a felty or cottony texture and
is used by adult females to hold eggs.
The insects are all female.
This article provides details relating
to life cycle, symptoms, distribution,
grass species affected, spread and
control methods.
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