Are you tearing your hair out at the sight of birds and wildlife tearing up your lawn?
The mild, wet weather we’ve experienced so far this year has brought on a blight of leatherjackets. These small, brown earth-dwelling grubs are the larvae of cranefly (or daddy long legs as they’re more commonly known) and are usually an issue in late summer and autumn.
Leatherjackets are usually found in moist soil and can damage lawns by feeding on the roots of grass plants. An early tell-tale sign that you may have these pests lurking beneath your lawn is an increase in visits from birds and other wildlife looking for a tasty snack. Before too long if the problem is not addressed, patches of bare earth and yellowed grass will start to appear impacting on the health of your lawn and ruining the appearance of your garden.
One option for treating these root-munching pests is the introduction of nematodes, a parasite that feeds on leatherjackets causing paralysis. This sounds like an easy solution in theory but in our experience is not reliably effective enough to be worthwhile. Your local Greensleeves lawn care experts can apply our innovative new insect control treatment to treat leatherjackets when they are at the very early stage of their lifecycle in September and October. This highly effective treatment needs to be done at this specific time of the year when the young leatherjackets are most vulnerable.
While unfortunately, the months outside of this window are not the right time of year to treat your leatherjacket problem with our insect control treatment due to the need to target them this way at a specific stage of their life cycle. The infestation issue and the damage they have caused can be remedied with a lawn renovation meaning that you can still get the beautiful lawn you deserve and enjoy it when better weather arrives.
This all-in-one, 5-step service will bring your lawn back to life and get it looking better than ever. And it’s cheaper than getting your garden returfed. Your local Greensleeves lawn care expert will visit to inspect your lawn and create a renovation plan. This typically involves lawn aeration to create channels in the soil and reduce compaction so that water and nutrients can penetrate down to the roots and moss & thatch control treatment (also known as scarification) to remove moss buildup and as much organic matter as possible. The final steps are seeding to introduce new grass to cover bare patches and thicken any remaining grassy areas followed by a top dressing not only to protect the seed but to provide vital nutrients to encourage a luscious green carpet to grow.
