30 May 2024

Customer Advice – Treating Leatherjackets.

Q. “I have read the information on your website and would appreciate you advice on the best treatment our lawn. We had new turf laid in Spring 2021 and up until this winter it has seemed relatively healthy. However, it has deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks. I have enclosed photos taken this week – we initially noticed that the area under the tree was becoming bare. Our soil is heavy clay and the garden slopes towards the house, so at first we thought the problem was due to the soil from the flower bed being washed down the garden due to the persistent heavy rain. Plus larger birds tend to peck under the tree for the fallout from the birdfeeder.

However we noticed small holes appearing in the bare soil and also what look like small casts. Having done a bit of research we suspected leatherjackets and having dug up some soil from a couple of areas this appears to indeed be the case. There are also a lot of small worms – I don’t know if they are just earth worms and how much they are contributing to the problem. I have enclosed some photos of both. We have also seen quite a few starlings recently. I cannot believe how quickly the lawn has deteriorated so it seems clear we need to take swift action to try and address the problem. We are wondering if the lawn is salvageable. Is it worth treating with a double dose of Nemasys now or has it gone too far? If returfing should we treat first anyway before lifting what is currently there? I note you have advised that leatherjackets can be imported on new turf so really don’t know what the best course of action is. Please help!! Any advice would be much appreciated.” Many thanks Mary

A. Thanks for the message and sorry for the state of the lawn – leatherjackets have been a real problem this winter and I am getting lots of enquiries like this. It is leatherjacket damage – there is one in the last picture and I suspect they originally came in with the turf and then it takes 2-3 years for them to breed up from a little problem into destroying the lawn. Lawns are resilient and the lawn may well recover, so the priority is to treat the lawn now with Nemasys Leatherjacket Killer to kill as many leatherjackets as possible (at double strength i.e. each pack will treat 50 sqm) and then again in the autumn. Once you have treated, feed the lawn and see what happens. Lawns do recover amazingly well and you do still have grass in the photos, so give it a chance. If it starts to grow back keep cutting and feeding and our Root Success product is great at helping lawn recover. If it doesn’t you can then re-seed or re-turf, but if you lay turf I would seriously consider treating again once you have laid it. Either way you MUST do a treatment in the autumn as well. Let me know how you get on.

Available to buy now