A sick lawn...

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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20,467
Location
UK
Up until mid-November my lawn was in excellent condition. It looked really healthy and showed no signs of any problems. It was initially turfed in April with Rolawn Medallion. It was fed on schedule and the last feed was in early October with Aftercut Autumn lawn feed. At the same time I aerated it with a hollow tine.

The neighbours lawn has been looking terrible from July and looked like my lawn does now since around August. I don't know if it's related?

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Here is a pic of the neighbours garden where it joins mine:
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One of the pics shows what I think are earthworm casts. There's loads of them in the bare patches. I haven't read anything to suggest that this could be the cause though - if anything it should help with drainage and aeration.

Any ideas what is causing this and can it be saved before it deteriorates any further? My lawn is like a voodoo doll - I feel it's pain!
 
peterwalkley said:
Possibly leather jackets. It looks very like what happened to ours. They eat the roots, but not sure they would be active over the winter.
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The seasons and climate/weather recently has been playing havoc with leather jackets mind so it could be they are completely out of whack.
 
peterwalkley said:
Possibly leather jackets. It looks very like what happened to ours. They eat the roots, but not sure they would be active over the winter.
Click to expand...

I think we have a winner! I've researched leather jackets since seeing your post and managed to find a lovely one with sheepskin lining. I also found lots of pictures of lawns which have been attacked by the buggers and they look very similar. Around about August the lawn was absolutely covered in crane flies. If you walked on it hundreds of them would fly up.

It looks like there are no chemical treatments available. The only solutions are to cover the lawn and manually pick them when they rise to the surface, and nematoads, the latter being only viable in the warmer months.

I'm glad that a fairly confident diagnosis has been reached. Treatment looks like it may take some time.

Many thanks :)
 
There are treatments. We use a lawn company called green thumb and it was their guy spotted it. They sprayed something and the lawn recovered in about 8 weeks (summertime). We didn't have to do anything bar write a cheque as it was outside the normal service.

Have words with next door as they will just keep spreading regardless of what you do your side of the fence.
 
Chlorpyrifos will sort your leather jackets out. They will be rather active now, if the crows haven't taken them :P

Edit: You would obviously need someone suitably qualified to treat it though. (Forgot which forum I was on then!)
 
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Yup I found a supplier that would sell it to me but the bottle was the same price as getting a pro in to do it and there's less chance of me unleashing chemical warfare in the neighbourhood. A guy from Lawn Master is coming tomorrow to apply the treatment.

Next step will be to scarify and seed later in the month. Do you think it would benefit from a top dressing? Hopefully it will recover by summer.

I was thinking of applying nematodes as a preventative measure since all the neighbours lawns are infested and they've shown no interest in getting it treated. Thoughts on this?
 
Scuzi said:
Yup I found a supplier that would sell it to me but the bottle was the same price as getting a pro in to do it and there's less chance of me unleashing chemical warfare in the neighbourhood. A guy from Lawn Master is coming tomorrow to apply the treatment.

Next step will be to scarify and seed later in the month. Do you think it would benefit from a top dressing? Hopefully it will recover by summer.

I was thinking of applying nematodes as a preventative measure since all the neighbours lawns are infested and they've shown no interest in getting it treated. Thoughts on this?
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Just watch the scarification, don't go in too heavy unless you have a lot of moss, your lawn could possibly be shallow rooted from the leather jackets and you could do more damage than good. If you do have a lot of moss go in with a lawn sand a couple weeks before to blacken the moss off, apply when its either raining or when rain is predicted make sure you spread it evenly preferably with a fertiliser spreader, if it doesnt rain make sure you water it in! The extra N will give your lawn a nice boost too for the spring. then go on with a slow release fertiliser to see you through the summer. The Pitchcare website has a decent mail order shop which would be better than any garden centre, maybe a little more pricier though. As for topdressing its totally up to you. Us greenkeepers use dressings to smoothen surfaces off more than anything, your lawn might benefit from a decent compost rich dressing such as fen dress more than anything because of the added nutrients. Whatever you do, stay away from sharp sand!! The particles are too angular and will hinder your drainage through the profile. If you want to use sand use a sand with round particles preferebly within the medium/Course category.
I would recommend you purchase this book if you are looking into this as more of a hobby: https://www.lawnuk.com/shop/lawn-expert-book-dr-d-g-hessayon Its fantastic and pretty much tells you all you need to know :)
 
peterwalkley said:
Possibly leather jackets. It looks very like what happened to ours. They eat the roots, but not sure they would be active over the winter.
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:eek:

Looks like our lawn, waterlogging isn't helping, but given the crazy number of daddy longlegs in the summer, this probably explains our lawn too.

Also no birds here, so nothing to deal with them. Time to find a treatment...

Edit: Nemasys leatherjacket killer (100sqm pack) ??
 
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I couldn't really advise on the nematodes as I have never looked into that idea before. I would imagine its quite an expense for something that you can only see through a microscope. ;)
 
CaptainRAVE said:
:eek:

Looks like our lawn, waterlogging isn't helping, but given the crazy number of daddy longlegs in the summer, this probably explains our lawn too.

Also no birds here, so nothing to deal with them. Time to find a treatment...
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Back end of last year was perfect for daddy long legs. If you're really bored, look into their life cycle, I found it fascinating :P
 
funkyphantom said:
Back end of last year was perfect for daddy long legs. If you're really bored, look into their life cycle, I found it fascinating :P
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They were everywhere here, so it can't be a coincidence. No manner of lawn feed or watering helped, thought it was strange.

It does sound like an interesting life cycle.
 
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