If centipede is the grass of choice in your
lawn, check now for tiny,
two-lined spittle-bugs that could be destroying your lawn, bite
by bite.

“If you walk across your grass and it’s
squishy, chances are, you’ve
got two-lined spittle-bugs,” said Kris
Braman, an entomologist with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
“It sounds and feels like you are walking on a
sponge.”

This squishy sound comes from the spittle masses
formed by the spittle-bug
nymphs, or immatures. Braman says the young insects form spittle
masses in the grass to
protect themselves from predators and from drying out.
“They also seem to like the
moisture they create, so do anything you can to disrupt that
high moisture
environment,” she said.

Braman says the first thing homeowners should do
is get on their knees.
“Get down low and part your turf,” she says. “You
want to look into the
thatch area, between the green and soil and look for the spittle
masses or the adult
spittle-bugs.”

Just a quarter-inch in size, the adult spittle-
bug has a black, wedge or
tent shaped body with two red lines across its back. Thus, the
name two-lined spittle-bug.
The “spittle”part of the name comes from the messy
spittle masses the young
insects create.

“They become very apparent every summer
when they land on people
trying to mow their lawns,” said Braman.

Although the spittle masses the young create are
not attractive, it’s the
adult spittle-bugs that cause the most damage to your lawn.
“The adults have
needle-like mouthparts to extract fluids from the plants,”
said Braman. “They
inject a toxin that causes the grass to wither and turn
brown.”

A common turfgrass pest, spittle-bugs feed on
centipede and other warm
season grasses such as bermudagrass, zoysia and St. Augustine.
In the Southeast, they also
feed on some woody ornamentals.

“Some holly trees, such a ‘Savannah’ Holly,
are preferred by adult
spittle-bugs,” said Braman. “If a tree has been
infested, the new growth will be
twisted and deformed and the leaves will have irregular brown
blotches.”

Braman says ornamental damage is caused by adult
spittle-bugs. The nymphs
of this species only feed on non-woody plants like
turfgrass.”If you see spittle
masses in trees, they weren’t put there by two-lined spittle-
bugs,” said Braman.

K. Braman, UGA, CAES “Get down low and part your turf,” Braman says. “You want to look into the thatch area, between the green and soil and look for the spittle masses or the adult spittle-bugs.” These wedge-shaped insects are only about a quarter-inch long.

If you find two-lined spittle-bugs in your lawn,
don’t panic. “They
are really visible insects and just because you see them, it
doesn’t mean your grass is
going to die,” said Braman.

The populations of two-lined spittle-bugs are
high during the summer
months. “This insect goes through two generations each
summer,” said Braman.
“Adults begin to fly in June and a second set of adults
will be seen in August.”

The first step to reducing populations in your
lawn is to keep your grass
mowed to the proper height. “Just because your turfgrass is
a low maintenance
variety, doesn’t mean it’s a no maintenance variety,” said
Braman. “You have to
keep the thatch area from being overdeveloped because that’s
where the insects are
living.”

The spittle-bugs also like the edges of the
grass along the sidewalks and
near hedges where the grass is shaded. “People sometimes
over fertilize centipede and
this is bad for several reasons,” said Braman. “The
spittle-bugs like the extra
nitrogen and the grass doesn’t. Centipede is naturally yellow-
green, but people try to
force it to be kelly green by over fertilizing.”

Braman says this creates a thicker and denser
grass, which is a favorable
environment for two-lined spittle-bugs.

Working with UGA turfgrass breeders and
horticulturists, Braman is
researching turfgrass and holly cultivars that are resistant to
harmful insects, such as
the two-lined spittle-bug. Researchers have found avoiding
landscape combinations like
centipede turf and ‘Savannah’ hollies can be an easy solution to
spittle-bug lawn
problems.

If spittle-bugs are a problem in your home
landscape, Braman suggests
homeowners limit irrigation to avoid creating an environment
that’s a magnet for
spittle-bugs. “Georgia’s drought conditions may help reduce
the populations this
year, but irrigation favors the insect’s development,” said
Braman.