Pest Control
Pest control is essential to prevent your lawn from being overrun and potentially ruined. Typically lawns can be plagued by 3 common pests: leatherjackets, chafer grubs and ants.
Leatherjackets
Commonly known as the larvae of the crane fly, these pests can completely destroy a lawn if left unchecked. While a small population is becoming more and more common in domestic lawns and isn't always essential to treat, a larger population definitely needs to be treated.
How To Spot Them
Leatherjackets are grey with a tubular body with no legs or obvious head.
They are typically found in large numbers in the soil beneath areas of stressed or dead grass as the feast on the grass roots.
A sudden increase in bird or badger activity is a sure sign of leatherjacket infestation. These predators leave holes in the lawn (or tear the whole thing up if it's badgers!) as they try to feed on the leatherjackets.
How To Deal With Them
Control of the pests can be achieved using specific Leatherjacket Nematodes from April through to May or in September through to October. Please ensure to follow product application guides carefully for nematodes as they are a living organism and die easily. It is also worth noting that in spring a double dose is required as the fully mature larvae are less susceptible to nematodes.
Chafer Grubs
The larvae of chafer beetles are very similar to leatherjackets in that they feed on the grass roots, can be spotted using the same methods and are dealt with using specific nematodes.
How To Spot Them
Chafer grubs are milky white and curved in a C shape.
Found in large numbers in the soil beneath areas of stressed or dead grass.
A sudden increase in bird or badger activity.
How To Deal With Them
Chafer grub-specific nematodes.
Ants
Ant mounds can be unsightly and spread quite quickly across the lawn in some cases.
How To Deal With Them
You could simply brush the ants away if you are not bothered by the infestations.
Alternatively there are various solutions on the market such as ant powders (Ant Stop is one brand). Or you can use ant-specific nematodes which the ants do not tolerate by near once applied so they move their nests. To achieve total control a combination of a course 3 ant nematode treatments followed by a final treatment of ant powder is best.