A sick lawn...

Scuzi · 7 Mar 2015 at 18:54

Success!

There are thousands of them scattered across the lawn. This selection was picked from a area of about 3" square. I managed to catch a few in the process of surfacing and took out my rage on them with the heel of my boot

A good third of the lawn is completely bare now and what remains is very thin and looking in poor health. I'm hoping a reseed will save it.

CaptainRAVE · 7 Mar 2015 at 19:10

Scuzi said:
Success!

http://i.imgur.com/XG09Ybl.jpg[/IMG

There are thousands of them scattered across the lawn. This selection was picked from a area of about 3" square. I managed to catch a few in the process of surfacing and took out my rage on them with the heel of my boot :p

A good third of the lawn is completely bare now and what remains is very thin and looking in poor health. I'm hoping a reseed will save it.[/QUOTE]

What did you do to them in the end?

Scuzi · 7 Mar 2015 at 19:52

I got a chap from Lawn Master to treat it with Chlorpyrifos. Could have bought a bottle of the stuff for £35 but it appears to be quite tricky to handle and Lawn Master were charging £35 for the treatment. With kids and all neighbours having animals in their gardens I didn't want to risk killing anything other than the leatherjackets!

It appears to have been money well spent so far. When the temperatures rise I'm going to apply Nemasys nematodes as a preventative measure since the neighbours aren't interested in treating their lawns.

Reseeding in a couple of weeks. I'll report on progress.

peterwalkley · 8 Mar 2015 at 10:21

Result ! After your post I've been keeping a closer eye out on mine where the little gits trashed it last time.

These lawn companies do a good job in my opinion. Yes you can DIY, but they can get the stuff a lot cheaper than retail and already have the kit. I worked out I wasn't saving anything and would be guaranteed to do a worse job of it than a professional.

funkyphantom · 8 Mar 2015 at 10:48

Scuzi said:
Success!

There are thousands of them scattered across the lawn. This selection was picked from a area of about 3" square. I managed to catch a few in the process of surfacing and took out my rage on them with the heel of my boot

A good third of the lawn is completely bare now and what remains is very thin and looking in poor health. I'm hoping a reseed will save it.

They are some bloody big leather jackets! The company you got out deserve a pat on the back. Its flipping hard to get the chemical into such large beasts! Well done

GarethSouthgate · 8 Mar 2015 at 11:03

Did you neighbour have the same treatment performed on their lawn?

Scuzi · 8 Mar 2015 at 15:45

sigma said:
Did you neighbour have the same treatment performed on their lawn?

No, and despite explaining the problem and the cure they're not interested. I'm hoping that Nematodes can keep the leatherjackets from their lawns at bay. I'll be pretty annoyed if my lawn keeps getting infested because they won't treat theirs.

uncle_rufus · 31 Mar 2017 at 14:33

Just had an appointment with a GreenThumb guy and he immediately pointed out we had leatherjackets along the shadier/damper edges of our lawn, so I had a search and found this thread!..

Sadly it seems the chemical treatments mentioned above are off limits these days, so trying to work out what to do...

Supposedly if you weigh-down a light-proof sheet like a bin-liner over the grass in the evening then the next morning a bunch of the larvae will have surfaced and you can pick them out of the lawn and dispose of them... Anyone had any luck with that? For a free option I figure doing it semi-regularly might be worthwhile, even if it just thins out their numbers (similar to the good ol' flashlight snail-patrol to protect the plants)

robj20 · 31 Mar 2017 at 15:51

Imidacloprid is what you want these days. Glad i still have a supply of Dursban.

You can still get CHLORPYRIFOS based products if you look around.

uncle_rufus · 31 Mar 2017 at 18:06

robj20 said:
Imidacloprid is what you want these days. Glad i still have a supply of Dursban.

You can still get CHLORPYRIFOS based products if you look around.

I'm a bit wary of doing this... I dunno...

What about just whacking down a ton of nematodes? I know the ideal time to do it is the late summer a few weeks after the daddy-longlegs have started emerging but would it hurt to give it a try now?

Madwelsh · 31 Mar 2017 at 23:08

From the photos, I'd have suggested it's a lack of light,especially as it seems where your fence seems to be coming towards the houses. You can buy grass that can deal with this, very strong grass (fescue) great for kids/pets, but kind of course in appearance. Yes you can stick a treatment on the lawn, yes you'll get leatherjackets, they are in every lawn! If your lawn is healthy, you won't even notice, remove light however, that's where you will see problems. The worm casts were significant for me, they are eating dying/ dead organic matter.. to me this is more about light than an invasion ! Google leather jacket lawns and images.. From the photos you have shown, both your neighbour and yourself, the grass simply isn't getting the sunlight, or enough of it to make it a strong plant. Therefore it's dying back, if you have a deadspot like this, you have one of two choices, either seed a strong grass that can take extreme shade, or deck/ pave the area that doesn't get enough light..

you can kill all the leatherjackets in your lawn but the grass won't grow there..

c1tro · 19 Apr 2017 at 22:03

any recommendations for strong grass that doesn't need much light?

philstanbridge · 20 Apr 2017 at 07:33

I'm jumping in on this thread. I've got a serious infestation going on and am looking at product to kill the bleeders. The only thing I can find is something called Nemasys leatherjacket killer but it is expensive. I would need the £80 pack judging by what I've read and the size of the effected area. Has anyone experience using it? I'm really stuck.

philstanbridge · 20 Apr 2017 at 07:40

c1tro said:
any recommendations for strong grass that doesn't need much light?

I was in Homebase yesterday and they have Evergreen seed in there that is supposedly quite strong. There was also a box of 'low-light' seed but I can't remember the brand. So maybe worth a look.

uncle_rufus · 20 Apr 2017 at 10:05

philstanbridge said:
I'm jumping in on this thread. I've got a serious infestation going on and am looking at product to kill the bleeders. The only thing I can find is something called Nemasys leatherjacket killer but it is expensive. I would need the £80 pack judging by what I've read and the size of the effected area. Has anyone experience using it? I'm really stuck.

I was contemplating giving this a try myself... although note the best time to use it is really late August / end of summer and you've got to try and aim for about 2 weeks after you see the usual wave of Crane flies (daddy longlegs) flying about everywhere... even once you get the timing right you've got to be careful with the dampness of the soil (juuuuust right!) and it sounds like even then it's very hit and miss whether it'll work at all... A tough one for sure

In my case I was planning to dig out a border around the edge of the lawn anyway, so that will include quite a bit of the affected areas - maybe it'll help maybe it won't - perhaps if I give the soil a good turning over the birds will come and finish the job!!!

philstanbridge · 20 Apr 2017 at 10:39

Yes I have read that too but I've gone for it anyway. I'm desperate to try something. I've bought the Eco pack which is best used in April/May, so I've still got time. There is another pack best used in September. The soil here is probably just about perfect for the application. Not too cold, and not too dry. I've also got a fair amount of lawn effected, so the more I can spread the better. I'll see what happens. I've already invested in the evergreen seed and will do that in a week or so depending on conditions.

Vanquish-Storm · 20 Apr 2017 at 11:42

c1tro said:
any recommendations for strong grass that doesn't need much light?

Greenup Supershade - I think its by Vitrax. They do a super tough one too.

Madwelsh · 23 Apr 2017 at 03:19

For most folks it'll be a light issue, not leatherjackets..

MassiveJim · 23 Apr 2017 at 14:39

Scuzi said:
No, and despite explaining the problem and the cure they're not interested. I'm hoping that Nematodes can keep the leatherjackets from their lawns at bay. I'll be pretty annoyed if my lawn keeps getting infested because they won't treat theirs.

I'd be annoyed at them to.

Is it worth paying £70 yourself to have their gardens treated ?

Better than have to keep forking out for new lawns and treatments.

funkyphantom · 6 May 2017 at 23:20

There aint much you can do about leather jackets now i'm afraid. The Nematodes are very hit and miss as they need to be delivered in a refrigerated vehicle, you have to keep them refrigerated and they have to go down in the rain at the right time of the leather jackets life cycle. (when their skin isn't too tough for the nematode to penetrate.)
Id imagine your lawns aren't big so try to put a dark tarpaulin down on the affected area (or even a bin bag) and see what comes up, don't be surprised if you get a few Chafer Grubs also! Good luck!
If you think you've got them bad, just think how us Greenkeepers are going to cope as all the Chemical that controls Leather Jackets has gone off the shelf now!