31 March 2025

Leatherjackets killing new lawn

Q. “Hi we had leatherjacket kill the lawn. So we dug up and re-laid with new turf. Exact same happened again. Please can you advise us what to do ? Lawn is virtually bare, so I will need to reseed (don’t want to turf again if we can help it !) thanks.” Stephanie by email.

A. Thanks for the message and sorry for the problems you are having with your lawn. Unfortunately I suspect the leatherjackets are coming in with the new turf each time – I get lots of email like this and this is why it keeps coming back.

Ideally you want to treat with Nemasys Leatherjacket Killer nematodes NOW at double strength to kill as many leather jackets as you can. The reason why we treat at double strength is that the leatherjackets are more mature and larger (because they have been feeding since the autumn) and are therefore much harder to kill, so by putting it on at double strength i.e. the 100 sqm pack treats 50 sqm it is more effective. This should then allow you to recover what’s left of the lawn / reseed it.

Then applying a good lawn feed (our Spring / Summer Lawn Feed is ideal) and Root Success Lawn Treatment will allow what is left of the lawn to recover – you will be amazed at how well lawns recover given a chance.  At this point you can over-seed to repair bare patches.

The main time to treat leatherjackets is in the autumn, so you want to aim to treat at least once with Nemasys Leatherjacket Killer this autumn i.e. in September and then possibly again in mid-October depending on how mild our Autumn is. This combination of nematode treatments, feeding etc should allow you to establish a new lawn.

I hope this helps. Jon @ Green Gardener

Available to buy now