In spring if you’ve got bare patches in your lawn like you can see I have in my Youtube video linked below you may well have Chafer grubs or leather jackets in your lawn.
Chafer grubs or leather jackets are a type of insect which will eat away at the root of the plant and leave it prone to weeds which can lead to lawn damage.
In this article I am going to talk about how applying nematodes to your lawn can help tackle lawn damage from leatherjackets and chafer grubs.
In parts one and two we talked about controlling weeds, removing coarse grasses, over seeding and leveling your lawn.
We’re well on our way to getting a fantastic lawn towards the end of spring and into the summer but there are a few more things you can do still to get really great lawn care results and ensure that you keeping the weeds out of your lawn.
How to Kill Leather jackets and Chafer Grubs
Nematodes for Leather Jackets -> https://amzn.to/3nMsMTT (commission can be earned, supports the blog!)
Nematodes for Chafter Grubs -> https://amzn.to/3oIjU2A (commission can be earned, supports the blog!)
Killing grubs to prevent lawn damage
Everything were doing as part of this lawn care regime is designed to provide the best environment for the type of grasses that we want in our lawn that are going to make it look great.
This means removing any weeds and filling any bare patches with the types of grasses we want in and also preventing lawn damage from grubs and insects.
If you can see any bald patches or lawn damage there is a chance that it can be down to insect damage, especially if your noticing them round this time of the year around April and May.
The two most common types of insects in the UK for this type of damage are chafer grubs and leatherjackets.
The type of damage that they can cause to your lawn can vary quite a lot but it can get to really extreme cases where these things can literally destroy your lawn.
There is a bald spot along the right side of my garden which is something I’ve just recently over seeded and leveled which I know this is partly due to grub damage, leatherjackets.
In particular because I can see them coming out of the lawn and they actually turn into crane flies or daddy long legs
Seeing these insects around your home and around the lawn is a good way to know that you’ve probably had some sort of infestation.
It’s also quite a good indicator to know when to control them aswell because this is the time that they’ll reproduce when they come out of the lawn best time to apply something called nematodes which will help introduce a natural biological leatherjacket killer
This months Lawncare Picks
Applying Nematodes to your lawn
The type of nematode that I’ll be using is nemesis which is a biological leatherjacket killer which supplements microorganisms that already exist in your soil
This product can be fast and effective, compatible with organic gardening and it’s easy to use just mixing with water.
This pack will treat around 100 square meters which is perfect for my size of lawn.
So looking at the back of the pack the recommendation is to dissolve the entire contents of the pack in a bucket containing 5 litres of water to create stock solution.
The next step is to stir vigorously and apply the solution to a tenth of the soil area to be treated. Then repeat two or three times until the whole area is treated and water it in.
The watering can I used I got from Amazon and it comes with a detachable hose rose end at the end.
I actually drilled some slightly bigger holes to allow all the solution to come through. I find it a really great and easy way to apply this type of stuff onto your lawn.
Like most applications when treating lawn damage, I’ll do a second pass in the opposite direction this will really help you get a nice coverage across the lawn if you ensure you can actually just do a pass with plain water this will help you get a feel for how big your lawn is and how fast you need to walk.
You could always try you using a small amount of the solution on a small section of the garden just to get a feel how things are flowing
The last step is to water the lawn in and keep it moist for the following days. Following this lawn care regime will help to keep your lawn looking good.
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[…] factor to why the lawns in such bad condition I’ve actually made a video on how to treat leather jackets if you want to check that […]
Will the nematode treatment for chafer grubs also kill leather jacket grubs? If not can I use the two treatments at one time or how long should you leave between treatments
There are two separate treatments as follows Trevor and they can be applied at the same time.
Leather J – https://amzn.to/3EWxkAv
Chafer- https://amzn.to/3ocrFAE
Excellent. Most useful. I will now try it out
I have a fairly small lawn that I have kept in good condition with your fertilisers and scarifying. I have been away for three weeks and on my return my lawn is now mud and I have leather jackets everywhere on my patio when it rains. I have never had them before but this year my lawn is devastated.
Do you have a restoration plan that I can follow, Nematodes put down on Saturday night before the rain.
Kevin.
Hi Kev – sad to hear this, I have the same problem! I know you keep your lawn looking mint, I remember the pictures from last year. Start with a rake over to remove any debris and get the autumn/winter feed down to wake things up. Youll then need to overseed the area next month would be best when the temperatures are high enough to get it looking its best. Try the dark green mix, will be great on your lawn!
I have bald patches on my lawn due to leatherjackets. Would you treat them before you overseed or do this all at the same time?