How to identify pests on your lawn 

You might start to see pests on your lawn at this time of year as they’re attracted to the warmer weather. If left untreated, pests can wreak havoc across your lovely lawn, but with our help, we can help prevent these unwanted visitors from making an appearance.
Here’s how to identify pests on your lawn and how GreenThumb can help keep them under control.

Chafer Grubs 

Chafer Grubs are soil-dwelling larvae of various chafer beetles. They feed on plant roots, especially those in lawns.

How to tell if Chafer Grubs are a problem in your garden:

•    Patches of the lawn may become slightly yellow.
•    Birds, particularly of the crow family (i.e., jays, magpies, rooks, and crows), badgers and foxes feed on the grubs, tearing up the loosened turf in the process.
•    Damaging infestations can be highly localised and sporadic in occurrence.
•    Chafer Grubs can be found in the soil under the loose turf. They have stout white bodies curved in a C shape, light brown heads, with three pairs of legs at the head end. They are bigger than an adult beetle and, if straightened out, would be up to 18mm (almost 3/4in) long species dependent.
•    Root damage in lawns means that the turf is easily rolled back, and the grubs will be visibly seen.

Leatherjackets 

Leatherjackets are the larvae of crane flies (Daddy Long-legs), which, when they lay eggs on your lawn (or Leatherjackets) feast on your lawn and cause significant damage. 

 
•    Leatherjackets have elongated tubular bodies, up to 30mm long, and are greyish brown. They have no legs or obvious heads.
•    Lawns develop patches where the grass turns a yellowish-brown and dies. This can be distinguished from similar effects, caused by lawn diseases or adverse growing conditions, by lifting the affected turf and finding Leatherjackets in the surface layers of the soil.
•    Crows, magpies, rooks, and starlings will search for Leatherjackets on the turf. These birds will scratch the surface to bring the Leatherjackets up.

How can GreenThumb help?

We can help lawns before or after signs of pest infestation using our Pest Management Treatment which can significantly reduce the number of pests in your lawn. This treatment also relieves stress and helps your lawn to recover from the damage caused by Chafer Grubs and Leatherjackets.

When can GreenThumb treat Chafer Grubs and Leatherjackets?

For Chafer Grubs, we can start applying our Pest Management Treatment between mid-July to October. This is the best time to treat these pests, as this is when Chafer Grubs are at their smallest. For Leatherjackets, we can start applying treatment between mid-September to October.

We recommend that you give your lawn a good watering before we apply this treatment, followed by another water the next day for around 10-15 minutes; this will help the treatment be most effective.

Our Pest Management Treatment is included in our Ultimate Programme but is also available as a separate treatment to any of our customers on our Standard or Basic Programmes. If you think you may have an infestation, contact your local GreenThumb branch today: www.greenthumb.co.uk/branch.