27 February 2023

Customer Question – Saving my lawn?

Q. Hi Green Gardener, I have an infestation of Chafer bugs and my lawn is in a bit of a mess, the grass is easily raked away along with the roots, doing a small (300 x 300mm) test dig down amongst the soil and dead grass I have been able to find and removed approx 30 of the critters, all similar sizes 10 mm) with one being about 15mm! I want to re-turf the area (approx 25m2) as soon as possible so need to deal with this infestation before I waste good money on new turf. I am happy to continue raking and removing all the grubs I can see but expect there are a few I will have missed and they will turn to bugs this summer and then get back into the grass to start all over again!! The question is – what order shall I do things in, shall I treat the existing ‘lawn’ first with your stuff in April and then lay the new turf on top or would it be better to continue to remove the dead grass and existing turf, then apply your treatment to the soil in April before laying the new turf (applying again in Sept). Also will the stuff I order for April last until September for the 2nd application? I want to make sure I make the best possible approach to tackle this problem hence I am seeking your advice, I don’t want to waste time/money/effort and want to make sure your product(s) has the best possible chance of working, hope you are able to point me in the best direction.” Kind regards, Neil

A. Thanks for the message and it must be quite some infestation to be this active this early. You must also have a very mild garden as they should be dormant now? If some of the grass has been removed i.e. you have raked it up then I suspect you will need to remove the rest before you can re-turf otherwise it will be too uneven? If so I would :-

• Remove the rest of the turf in the spring when you are ready to re-turf and prepare the soil i.e. dig it over / rotavate, rake, level etc. This will give you a good chance to see what grubs are there and to let the birds have their fill.
• I would then treat the ground with Nemasys Chafer Killer and keep the ground moist for 2 weeks to allow the nematodes to work. I would aim to do this around the end of March / beginning of April.

• Lay new turf and keep watered. Depending on the size of the area you were doing, if it is not cost prohibitive, I would treat again at this point to make sure the turf is grub free – lots of times chafer grubs and leatherjackets can be imported with the turf.
• Treat again in September.

I hope this helps and let me know how you get on. Jon @ Green Gardener

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