The spring of 2020 has seen a huge rise in the number of leatherjackets infecting lawns. Two mild winters and a damp summer combined with the eradication of any controls has resulted in an explosion in numbers of the insects. If your lawn looks to be suffering, have a dig around, you may find the culprit. So what do you do if you find leatherjackets in your lawn?
The winter of 2018-2019 saw a large number of lawns devastated by leatherjackets. These grubs live in the soil, just under the surface of a lawn. They are the larval stage of crane flies (tipulidae). Eggs laid by the adults in the summer months. They hatch and the grubs then spend the winter days munching through grass plants,… Read More »
Updated: October 2020 Download my leatherjacket fact sheet This is a summary PDF of this blog post in an easy to see, printable format. What are leatherjackets? A leatherjacket is the common name for the larval stage of an insect called a crane fly. They are in the Tipulidae family of insects. In the UK, two species of… Read More »