turfgrass mystery

This might be an easy one. The picture above is manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) and was taken in December 2009. If you’ve followed this blog, you will know that I am a big fan of manilagrass in East and Southeast Asia, as this native grass produces a fine turf with fewer problems than other grasses in this part of the world.

I’d heard of this problem from golf course superintendents in India and the Philippines, but hadn’t seen it myself until 2012. The grass is bermudagrass, the location is Sri Lanka, and when we dug into the soil and broke the soil apart, we saw these insects scurrying about.