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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.

 
From a 2 page Feature Article in Issue Twelve
 
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Each issue we provide a step-by-step process practical on several gardening projects.

This issue Paul Hoffmann shows you:

How To...
…remove a medium to large tree branch
…deep water your plants
…increase your dwarf Rhoeo
…tidy up your old and tired bromeliads

 
From a 2 page Feature Article in Issue Twelve
 
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