Lawn Addicts News
Redheaded Cockchafer
The adult beetle is approximately 13 to 15 mm long and about 8 mm wide and dark brownish-black in colour. The cockchafer grub, which causes lawn damage, is the larval stage of the Redheaded Cockchafer life cycle. The Redheaded Cockchafer, Adoryphorus couloni (Bermeister), is periodically a common pest, especially in areas of south-west and central …
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Pruinose Scarab
When mature the adult beetle possesses a dark-brown to black body up to 16 mm long and has a unique set of antenna with large club-like ends. The underside of the body is covered in short grey hairs. The Pruinose Scarab (Sericesthis germinate) larva is a white to creamy-white soft-bodied grub, up to 20 mm …
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Mole Cricket
The mole cricket (Gryllotalpa spp. & Scapteriscus spp.) is a brown long insect pest with a hard, shiny head, wings and body up to 50 mm long. They have large front legs with jagged claws for digging, and strong l hind legs that are used for removing loose soil while burrowing. Egg laying has been …
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Mealybug
Found in warmer growing climates, mealybugs are soft-bodied, wingless insects that often appear as white cottony masses on the leaf. They feed by inserting long sucking mouthparts, called stylets, into the leaf drawing out sap out of the tissue. Damage is not often much. However, at higher numbers they can cause leaf yellowing and curling …
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Lawn Armyworm
Lawn armyworm (Spodoptera Mauritia) is a damaging pest when in the larval life stage. The larvae are a soft-bodied caterpillar with a dark-coloured body up to 45 mm long. They possess unique white and yellow striped patterns along the length of the back making them relatively easy to identify. When feeding the larvae often appear …
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Couch Grass Mite
Couch grass mites (Aceria cynodoniensis) are very small and difficult to see without visual assistance. They are almost transparent to whitish-yellow colour with some darker markings on the outer edge. They have two pairs of legs and an elongated body. Believed to be a native species, this mite now has widespread distribution across Australia. Couch …
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Blackheaded Cockchafer
The Blackheaded Cockchafer (Aphodius tasmaniae) is a native insect of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. In Victoria, Blackheaded Cockchafers are mainly active in the Western District, the Southern Wimmera, the North-Central and Central districts, the North-East and Gippsland. They appear to be pests in areas where the annual rainfall exceeds about 480 mm. The Blackheaded Cockchafer …
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Black Cutworm (Agrotis Spp.)
Black Cutworm is a caterpillar pest found mainly on bentgrass. The larval stage appears as a smooth-bodied, dark-coloured caterpillar with longitudinal lines and brown to black spots on back and sides. When mature, the adult Black Cutworm metamorphoses into a brown moth with a wing span up to 55 mm. The fore-wings are purple-brown with …
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Billbug (La Plata Weevil)
When immature, Billbug (Spenophorus brunnipennis) is a legless, creamy-white ‘C’ shaped larvae with an orange head capsule and a body up to 10 mm long. When mature the larvae metamorphoses dark-brown to black weevil, with a distinctive ‘bill’ like snout and elbowed antennae. Young adults often have dark brown striping on the wing casings and …
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Argentine Stem Weevil
The immature or larval stage of the Argentine Stem Weevil (Listronotus bonariensis) is a legless, creamy-white, active larvae up to 4 mm in length. When mature, the adult appears as a dark grey to black weevil with mottled grey body markings and a distinctive protruding snout, up to 3 mm in length. Adult weevils emerge …
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Argentine Scarab
Argentine Scarab (Cyclocephala signaticollis) is very similar in size and shape to the better known African Black Beetle but is a lighter tan-coloured insect and has subtle striping on the wing carapaces. These insects live in the soil and favour turf. Its presence is often indicated by a spongier feel to the turf, which results …
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African Black Beetle
Newly hatched African Black Beetle (Heteronychus arator) larvae are about 5 mm long with six legs, white bodies and pale brown heads. Fully grown larvae are 25 to 30 mm in length with a creamy-white body and light-brown head. The rear end has a dark grey tinge. When resting the grubs curl into a C-shape. …
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Take-all Patch
Initially small, light-brown dead patches appear on turf resembling Fusarium. Once Take-all Patch is established, the patches continue to grow throughout the year, causing turf to appear a bronze to red colour and fade out to brown. In cooler times of the year the patches can be grey. Patches may grow to 15 cm per …
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Slime Mould
Slime Mould affects all turfgrass species and can take on various appearances from a dusty spore to yellow spheres like caviar. It can smother grass blades, turning them grey, pink, purple, white or yellow. The affected turf forms patches up to 60 cm in diameter and it grows outwards, yet there is no immediate damage …
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Spring Dead Spot
The first symptoms of Spring Dead Spot can appear in lower soil temperatures when growth is slow to dormant, depending on the season as early as late Autumn as we have seen recently. Traditionally it was found often in late winter and spring, when turf resumes its growth and will present circular, bleached dead patches. …
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Rust
Rusts are fungal diseases that involve many different strains and affect a wide variety of plants, including grasses. Most warm and cool season turfgrass species are susceptible to Rust diseases, the turf health is irrelevant as it will also attack a healthy plant. Orange spores appear underneath the leaves, making Rust easy to identify. The …
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Pythium Blight
Pythium blight first appears as small, irregularly shaped spots ranging from 12 mm to 100 mm in diameter. Leaves appear water-soaked in appearance at first, then shrivelled. Diseased patches fade to a light-brown or grey colour. Groups of spots frequently join together. At times, the shape of the affected areas may resemble elongated streaks. Both …
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Black or White Helminthosporium (Black or White Helmo)
Message Lawn Addicts for further advice on other fungicides and lawn care products, available online. Black or White Helminthosporium (Helmo) is a common black or white leaf spot disease which is actually caused by Drechslera, Curvulari, Bipolaris and Exserohilum species of fungi. The disease cycle is generally short, as it requires extended periods of leaf wetness …
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Fusarsium Patch
Fusarsium Patch is found in warm season and cool season grasses like wintergrass, bent grass, fescue, ryegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass and low mown Kikuyu in cooler climates. Initially round patches appear as small, water-soaked spots less than 5 cm in diameter. They then change in colour from orange-brown to dark brown and finally to a light grey. …
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Fairy Ring
Fairy Ring occurs in all turfgrasses and symptoms vary with the fungal species involved. Circular or arc-shaped rings of darker or faster-growing turf appears in moist turf. A concentric ring of dead grass may develop inside the circle of lush grass. The size of the rings can vary from a few centimetres to indefinitely large, …
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ERI or Ectotrophic Root Infecting Fungi
Also referred to as Couchgrass Decline, turf grass symptoms of ERI disease start by thinning out of the surface and can include straw-coloured patches that range in size from 30 cm to 1 metre in diameter. Ectotrophic root-infecting fungi (ERI fungi) are a factor in causing patchiness and poor root health in couch grass. The term …
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Dollar Spot
The first symptoms of Dollar Spot are small, circular and sunken patches in the lawn. Usually smaller than 6 to 7 cm in diameter, the patches are a pale and bleached colour, as a result of straw-coloured lesions that run down the blade. As the disease becomes more severe, the patches merge into larger irregular …
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Brown Patch
Brown Patch appears as a round patch that can range in size from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. The disease occurs on cool season and warm season turf grass species. At temperatures around 15 to 20°C, the spores germinate and begin to grow. When night temperatures are consistently above 20°C and moisture …
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Anthracnose
Anthracnose is a selection of fungal diseases that either attacks the roots and/or the foliage. It is quite invasive in warm, humid environments. The diseases often follow a common symptom pattern. Basal rot is where the disease affects crown and root tissue, whereas the key disease affecting the leaves is foliar blight. Basal rot is …
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Nutgrass (Cyperus Rotundus)
Nutgrass is a perennial rapidly spreading grass-like sedge with flat, tapered and corrugated foliage. The stem is triangular in cross-section, a feature which is unique to sedges. The name nutgrass comes from the nut-like tubers found on rhizomes under the surface. These “nuts” serve as energy storage for the weed which are the reason the …
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Mullumbimby Couch (Cyperus Brevifolius)
Mullumbimby couch is a perennial grass-like sedge up to 15 cm high with dark green, glossy, strap-like leaves. It has tough, long rhizomes that are red to purple in colour and triangular stems in cross-section which is characteristic of sedges. This sedge is in mostly observed in flower through spring and summer and presents as …
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Onion Grass or Guildford Grass (Romulea Rosea)
Onion Grass is a perennial grassy weed with between three and 10 thin, strappy leaves rising from the central base up to 30 cm long. The leaves are up to 2 mm wide with a prominent central midrib that protrudes to create an almost cylindrical leaf blade in cross section in a spear and quite …
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Ryegrass
Ryegrass is a cool season perennial or annual grass with tufted or clustered growth and perennial strains have a glossy dark green leaves while annual strains can be brighter green which both are often purplish at the base. Ryegrass possesses a thin ligule with a folded leaf along its vein and overlapping or clasping auricles. …
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Poa / Wintergrass (Poa Annua)
Poa is a grassy winter annual with perennial and biennial variations. Poa is light green in colour with a tufted or clustered growth habit and a white panicle (flower branch) inflorescence germinating from late winter throughout spring and summer, if conditions permit. Leaf blades are folded along its vein with a “long boat” shaped leaf …
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Summer Grass (Digitaria Sanguinalis)
Summer grass is common in Australia’s lawns. It is a very fast-growing weed which sends out its shoots in all directions from its centre and spreads through stolons (above ground runners). Summer grass stems are either brown or red, with thin grey-green leaves and fine vertical seed heads that are spiky. A vigorous seeding plant, …
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