Norfolk Lawn Care
Norfolk Lawn Care
& Fine Turf
Mobile: 07799 411707
Lawn Pests and Preventing Them
Lawn pests and grubs can be the most off-putting and damaging intrusion
to your garden. Here you will find a list of your most common visitors.
All can be simply dealt with through our seasonal treatments,
without you having to get out the old trowel and rake!
We will be able to advise you if you have anything different.
The 3 most common lawn pests which affect our lawns are:
• Chafer Grubs
• Leatherjackets
• Ants
It is important that correct identification of the pest is made, in order for the appropriate course of action to be taken before the extensive damage is caused to the lawn.
Control products for these lawn pests are not generally available for the homeowner. Specialist equipment and training is needed to apply them.
If the condition of your lawn is being affected by some of these common pests then contact Norfolk Lawn Care for advice on the best course of action.
The larvae of both the Crane fly and Chafer eat the root structure of your lawn. The degree of damage varies depending on population numbers but could result in total loss of your lawn.
Chafer Grubs
Adult chafer grubs are a reddish brown beetle around 14mm long. But it is the grub stage that causes the problems to turf. The adults emerge from the soil in May-June and mate in the evenings through to the end of July, each night returning to the soil. Eventually the female chafer grub lay their eggs in the soil, laying around 15-20 eggs over several days. Eggs are laid in the soil around 150mm deep.
After approximately 2 weeks the eggs hatch, the chafer grub larvae move toward the surface and begins to feed on the roots of the grass plants.
You will notice the damage to your lawn in the August September period. This damage presents itself as a gradual thinning and yellowing of the lawn. The greater the chafer grub infestation the more evident the damage will be. Dead areas would expand in size and turf can literally be peeled back like an old carpet.
The problem can also become evident by secondary damage such as birds pecking, or foxes foraging at and pulling back the surface.
Contact Norfolk Lawn Care to treat the chafer grub infestation and return your lawn to a healthy condition.
Leatherjackets
Leatherjackets are also known as Crane Fly or Daddy Long Legs. The adult is known as the Crane Fly and it is at the larvae stage of the life cycle that this creature is called a Leatherjacket. This is the stage at which they are a pest to turf as they feed on the roots of the grass plants.
Grass is very capable of resisting minor damage to its root system and so damage may often go unnoticed but if a large infestation is present, around 25 larvae per square metre, significant damage will be caused.
The adult, the Crane Fly or Daddy Long Legs are found at the end of summer and early autumn, at this point they are laying eggs in the soil, up to 200 per adult. The eggs then hatch and feed during the autumn into the following spring until about May. Damage can be noticed in the spring time but as winters have become milder in recent years damage can be seen as early as the late autumn and winter time.
Again damage and pest population can be indicated by birds (starlings, rooks and jackdaws for instance) scratching the surface to feed on the leatherjackets.
Norfolk Lawn Care can apply a control product between late October and March to reduce pest populations and restore your lawn.
Ants
Ants that live in the lawn tend to leave hills or patches of fine sandy soil. Although they are more of a nuisance than a true lawn pest, they can still cause the lawn to suffer. Total eradication may not be possible but some control can be achieved.
Besides being the longest-lived insects, ants can lift 10 - 50 times their bodyweight, which comes in handy when having to feed such large colonies. As team-working insects, they rely on each other and each role given in the colony.
Ants become a garden pest when they eat living plants such as seedlings, weak, or dying plants–and cultivate colonies of insect pests such as aphids, scale, and mealybugs (these bugs excrete a sugary substance called honeydew which ants eat – ants will farm these insects to ensure their own food supply). Ant pests can be repelled or killed.
Some ants (commonly known as red ants) can sting, but for most people this is only a minor irritation.
Contact Norfolk Lawn Care for advice and see how we are currently combatting the ant problem.
For more information, check our treatment programs here:
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