What about you! And welcome to a Premier Lawns video.
if you're watching this and looking at your lawn and asking
why is my lawn dying in patches there's an insect
called "leather jacket" - and it could eating your lawn from below
and today we're going to look at how to spot it,
and more importantly how to control it.
A leather jacket is the lava stage of a Crane Fly
or Daddy Long legs. A little bit of basic science. Blue bottles are maggots
before they are flies, butterflies are caterpillars,
and crane flies are leather jackets. We refer to the grubs as "larvae",
and the job of the larvae is eat, eat, and more eat before turning into
an adult who will mate, lay eggs and continue the
life cycle. Leather targets feast on the roots of
the grass plants which is why they're not particularly
welcomed by us lawn lovers.
Now.This is an extreme case you can actually see the
grubs lying on the surface of the concrete.
New builds are very prone to leather jackets.
I'm unsure of the reason behind this if you know -
leave me a comment down below!
A good way to find out if you have leather jackets in your
ground is just to dig a couple of holes. Now just to make you aware this
lawn doesn't have any leather jackets, but I'm just going to show
you whereabouts you'd find them if it did.
Your lawn can support and sustain if you have leather jackets in your lawn,
but whenever you have a high number of leather jackets in your
lawn, that's when the problems arise. You'll generally find them in the thatch
layer and just below the surface in around the roots.
That's where you would generally find them, they'll not be very deep in the
soil because they feed on the roots.
Another way to control leather jackets,
and also to test to see if they're there - now before you do this you have to
really soak the grass properly soak it, the grass has to be
drenched. If you get some heavy
black plastic like here and if you cover the area
you have soaked and leave it overnight what happens is the grubs come up the
soil and whenever you remove that the next day
you can see them there.
Now some people will do this and not do the nematodes but I think the nematodes
is a worthwhile step.. Doing this is only a half measure.
The best way, and the only way you can treat
leather jackets in the UK, is with these things,
nematodes. As long as you follow the instructions and how to use them
properly, and if you use them at the right time of the year
they generally work very well i'm going to put
an Affiliated Link down in the description where you can pick these up
and use them yourself. Now one of the most important things
is knowing the size of your lawn so I'm going to do a very
basic measurement on how I measure my lawn.
Now you could also use a tape measure, or just pace it out.
You can only buy it per 100 square meters.
My lawn measures 150 square meters so I have to buy enough for 200 square meters.
I recommend that you get an applicator
such as this. This is a miracle grow feeder.
Now, I'm not being paid to promote or sponsor these products
So this is the nematodes. Now nematodes actually are
a live product they're grown in a lab and they have a best before date. Now if
you get them and you don't use them it's
important that you store them in the fridge.
I know if I said to my missus about that, it would be be like, "You're not putting
them in my fridge! " But there you go all joking aside folks,
some bad news for you in regards to the leather jackets.
Generally if you have leather jackets this year, you're going to have them next
year, and the following year and the year
after that. I always recommend that you treat for three years afterwards.
Just use this, buy this applicator
and then store it to the side and keep it for next year.
Now let's get into the nematodes now the brown stuff you see
I believe it's just a carrier it's only clay the nematodes themselves are
microscopic and you actually can't see them with a naked eye
so it's important whenever you're scraping all this out, in
you get everything.
If you get a watering can and just make sure you scrape it all out and even
scrape the lid off as well, and make sure it's nice and clean get it all in there
so you're not missing out on any of the nematodes at all
And then to use it. It really couldn't be simpler. Make sure you put it to feed
and water so as the nematodes is going to go through it.
You can either have it just the water and set the applicator to flat
the time it takes for the bowl to dispense most of the nematodes
is approximately eight minutes under standard water
pressure though this may vary according to your own water pressure.
And then just attach a normal standard hose onto the
applicator, and that's you, you're good to go.
It's important to mark out clearly the fine zones on your garden
to make sure that you apply the nematodes at a proper rate
I used posts, but you could equally just use plant pots!
If you're enjoying this video - if you could give me a big thumbs up!
Like the video, Subscribe for more content like this. I post regular
tips and tricks on how to take your lawn to the next level.
At the start of this video I talked about
the life cycle of leather jackets, and that is very important.
There is only certain times of the year that nematodes work.
The nematodes when the leather jackets are
active in the soil, which is typically mid-April through the mid-May
at double strength.
Early September through to the end of October at a regular dose.
It's very important to keep watering the lawn for the next couple of weeks
after you apply the nematodes.
If you've enjoyed this video leave me a Comment down below!
SMASH the Like button, and I'll see in the next video. Thank you for watching!