Chafer Grubs

Hi,

Liz has been helping me with lawn advice and I'm still in the process of following the other thread but I thought I'd start a new thread based on today's findings.

I've seen my lawn turn patchy in places like this:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/gallery/photos/6169/

The suggestions was to lift to some turf as my area is prone to Chafer Beetles and in turn Chafer Grubs. I had Merit treatment about 2 months ago and watered it in as recommended thinking that would stop any problems I might have. Whilst rolling back a piece of turf today I found this....

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/gallery/photos/6168/

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/gallery/photos/6167/

I was also raking up some hedge trimming and found this on the surface...

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/gallery/photos/6166/

I'm guessing both are chafer grubs? The one under the turf was hard to find and took fair bit of digging around to find it and I didn't find any more in the process.

Any suggestions on what to do now please?

 

Hello, the white one is Chafer, the other looks like a Caterpillar.
Chafers are fairly common and lots of lawns will have them and in numbers they cause damage, finding just one is not bad. It's when you find a lot that it's worrying so the Merit may have hit home which is good.
It would be worth considering this treatment again around May time if they are a problem in your area but finding one eliminates that from the equation.

 

Thanks Liz that's great. When you say it eliminates the problem do you mean the patchy grass I've got? What are you thinking? It's a disease or just needs a good scarify etc? Thanks.

 

Yes I would say it's something else that has caused the patches. It's hard as I can't see first hand what's going on but a good scarify will do no harm.
Lawn diseases are very hard to name unless the problem shows up with symptoms that give it away.
Compact soil creates problems too which is why I asked if they tested for this.
It could be a combination of both that's created the problem.

Have you noticed other lawns like next door or in the same area showing similar problems?

Can you have a close look at the patches and see if there are any red tips on the grass leaf like in my photo.



I must get some new pics of this to make it clearer.

 

I've not noticed anything like that but will have a good look tomorrow. I've noticed that another patch of the lawn (near the one I photographed) has quite a few yellow blades of grass.

Neighbours seem to have quite dry and colourless grass too to be honest. All summer mine has been thicker, greener and better looking but recently it's dulled down. Next door have a company treat their grass.

I hope this information helps.

 

Any idea what it could be? Thanks.

 

If I was in your position I would scarify well and overseed as it is a good time to do that right now. Then re-visit the problem next year after spring if it still exists.

It is going to get wet and cold and working on gardens is not easy in late autumn.