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Story: Insect pests of crops, pasture and forestry

Root aphid

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Root aphid

It is easy to confuse root aphids with another common pest, the mealy bug – they both surround themselves with a white, waxy secretion and eat grasses. However, root aphids are smaller than adult mealybugs, yellow-white and oval-shaped. Root aphids also tend to occupy deeper soil than mealybugs.

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How to cite this page

Alison Popay, Insect pests of crops, pasture and forestry – Introduced pests of pasture roots and foliage, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/17967/root-aphid (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Alison Popay, published 1 March 2009.