Worm Casts on Lawn

Can anyone give me some advice???
Every Autumn my lawn becomes an unusable bog due to hundreds of wet sticky worm casts. By mid October you can barely see the lawn as it is covered by this horrible, sticky wet mud.
How can I solve or minimise this problem??
Any advice greatly received.

 

Lucky you ! Worm casts make superb compost material and you will pay a small fortune at a garden centre for a bag of that "sticky wet mud".
Try brushing them into the lawn or lifting them ( small brush and coal shovel work well)and adding them to your compost or keep seperate and use as a mulch / fertiliser - very high in nutrients I am told. Only thing is, try and do this before the casts turn into a wet sticky covering on your lawn

 

Hi Gooner,

There are things you can do to discourage worms, but I agree with sewer rat that they are doing more good than harm. The surface of your lawn may look boggy, but the worms are helping to aerate and drain the soil below the surface.

Brushing or lifting the casts is the best thing to do, but is easier when the frosts come in so you don't make too much mess - try to avoid smearing them at all costs, because as sewer rat says, the casts are very fertile and make an excellent seed bed for weed seeds.

Useless information - there are about 24 species of worm in the UK, but only three of them make a mess on the surface. Some chemicals used in the past have eradicated entire worm populations for up to ten years, meaning that all the benefits that they give you are lost.

 

Yep, the only permanant way to get rid of worm casts is to kill the worms. Kill the worms and your soil fertility will drop dramatically due to lack of turning and aeration. Your garden visitors like birds and hedgehogs that not only feed on worms and pests but also act as natural fertilisers will also decline.

Worms are your friend! Treat the lawn with a 50/50 top dressing of sharp sand and leaf mould. The worms will love you for it and the inclusion of sand and organics will help prevent the sticky goo from forming if you have a clay soil.

[ 19. September 2005, 10:46 PM: Message edited by: frogesque ]

 

Lucky you! My lawn was laid on 'topsoil' that was so full of clay it could almost go straight onto a potter's wheel! What I wouldn't give for a few dozen worms. (They are moving in bit by bit, though!)

 

Worm casts - ours are more like mini mole hills...
I have been told many times that I should be grateful as some would love to have what we have... but what a mess. From now until next spring we have to keep off the Grass no I mean mud..

Not possible or practicle to collect far to damp to sweep in.

Grin & Bear it live with it. :rolleyes:

 

yes keep the worms. Improving drainage is not too easy but hollow tyning would help.

 

Hi gooner, i symthasise with you

i am also blessed with a lwan which is unusable for 5 or so months of the year from mid oct to mid march.


it seems the worms love burrowing into my lawn and bringing numerous sticky piles of earth to the top smothering the grass

there is no way i could lift or brush this wet sticky earth as it's so abundant that it takes over the whole lawn

i'm slowly adding silver sand to the lawn to raise the level and help draingage as i think damp soil helps the worms to burrow

i'd recommend
1. adding silver sand to the lawn as a top dressing every few months
2. ensuring you remove grass clippings
3. spiking the earth and brushing in coarse grit to help drainage
4. increasing acidity - worms don't like acid soil i think top dressing with peat would help


perhaps you should top dress with peat, silver sand and grass seed

that's what i'm trying at the moment

good luck!

 

just sweep them into a dustpan and use them else were.

 

Our house is built on the edge of an old sand pit so when its wet it stays wet... once it dries its like a beach...

Adding silver sand wouldnt help - or would it?

 

don't put silver sand on as a top dressing, only really any use if you want to improve drainage.try some kind of organic topdressing, a seived topsoil would probably be best, don't put too much on at once put little and often should help.

 

i wonder if you could wear those spiked shoes to help aerate and you could try a besom for worm casts

 

great idea with the besom brush, works a treat. the spiked shoes are great if you only have a small lawn! otherwise you'll inherit a tendancy to walk like a penguin!

 

Just had a thought- You can get a spray [intended for easy removal of dog or cat poo] which freezes the offending item temporarily. If the lawn isn't enormous it might be cheap enough to use on worm casts- you could then sweep them onto borders or shovel!

[ 10. January 2006, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Really - where does one get such a spray?
What's it called?
Sounds like a good idea for when my cat's decided to give me back his dinner!!