They have two orange lines across the wings. They cause hollies to become splotchy and yellow and cause the leaves to drop prematurely. Female twolined spittlebugs lay their eggs in turf grasses. The eggs are inserted into the plant stem or between the stem and leaf sheath. When the nymphs hatch from their eggs, they begin to feed.
Spittlebugs suck sap out of the plants with their needle-like mouthparts.
As the nymphs feed, they excrete the spittle which protects them from predaceous mites and insects. Because spittlebugs feed on turfgrasses at the base of the plant, their numbers may be quite high without being noticeable. Only after the adults start flying is the seriousness of an infestation realized. As adults, they may be a pest of hollies or in commercial turf. For twolined spittlebug management around the home, heavily-infested hollies may be treated with Orthene, Dursban, lindane, or some other contact insecticide when the twolined spittlebugs are normally present in mid to late summer.