Wynnum MC tackles lawn mites to protect croquet courts, plus two more from Wynnum

The Wynnum MC is battling the problem with spraying programs designed to control the mites and help the lawns recover. It is another reminder that maintaining croquet courts is not simply mowing grass. Sometimes the enemy arrives wearing eight legs and carrying a chemistry set.

Wynnum lawns facing microscopic mite invasion

The lawns at Wynnum Croquet Club are currently under attack from a minute invader. These couch or lawn mites, Aceria cynodoniensis, damage couch grass by injecting toxins into the plant while feeding., causing discoloured patches and sections of dying lawn.

These minute yellow-white creatures are not insects at all. They are actually arachnids, distant cousins of spiders and ticks, complete with eight legs and no antennae. At their microscopic size they are virtually invisible to the naked eye, yet they can create damage that spreads across a lawn like a slow-motion bushfire map.

Wynnum Croquet Club battles lawn mite invasion

The lawns at Wynnum Croquet Club are currently under attack from a minute invader. These couch or lawn mites, Aceria cynodoniensis, damage couch grass by injecting toxins into the plant while feeding, causing discoloured patches and sections of dying lawn.

These minute yellow-white creatures are not insects at all. They are actually arachnids, distant cousins of spiders and ticks, complete with eight legs and no antennae. At their microscopic size they are virtually invisible to the naked eye, yet they can create damage that spreads across a lawn like a slow-motion bushfire map.