Leatherjacket plague warning

[ina]

From the Scottish Farmer, April 29 (sorry, I only get it two weeks late...):

"Scotland's crops are at risk of damage from the highest levels of leatherjackets seen in over 30 years of monitoring..."

It says, particularly high levels in the West of Scotland, but I have already found half a dozen without looking for them! Two years ago I didn't have a single one in my garden. They can eat all your young plants from below - a serious pest. Worse than slugs, because they live and work underground. I don't know any way of getting rid of them (without pesticides) - just kill every single one that you find when digging, pulling weeds etc. And kill their parents, the daddy-(and mummy-)long-legs.

[Cheezy]

Had a quick look at the RHS to see if they had any other advice, some good stuff here, good way to attact them out so you can go mental (if you have a lawn or open ground.

I hate daddylong legs!

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles02 ... ackets.asp


C

[Shirley]

Good link Cheezy

Will give that a go - am sure the boys will love to join in with the early morning collection!!!

[ina]

Yep, good information. Unfortunately, the nematodes have to be applied in autumn... Somebody did that with the black plastic here two years ago, when we had hardly any (they needed them to feed to birds, for a research project - wrong year for that!).

It probably works fine on lawn - but that's not my problem (don't have any - only bits of grass for the goats to run about on!): How do I do it amongst the veggie seedlings? It would have to be small pieces of plastic.... Mmhh, have to get my thinking cap on. And make another cup of coffee.

We'll get those buggers!

[Millymollymandy]

I've found a few of those things and give them to the hens (along with the chafer grubs). It's a real pain when your lettuce or cabbage goes floppy overnight.

[ina]

And it wasn't an empty warning, either... Found loads today. Each time I pulled up a bunch of weeds, there was one or two. Grrrr!

[Andy Hamilton]

I have noticed daddy long legs around at the moment which is quite a few month early. What has caused this I wonder? anyway here is a picture of a leatherjacket - taken from http://whatcom.wsu.edu

[The Chili Monster]

Ugh ... They don't even improve with age

[Wombat]

Daddy long legs? That's what we call a type of spider here..........no connection surely?

Nev

[The Chili Monster]

wombat wrote:

Daddy long legs? That's what we call a type of spider here..........no connection surely?

No, these "Daddy-Long-Legs" are definitely insects. The other name for them is The Crane Fly.

As kids, we'd pull their legs off and float them on a small fishing lake, just to see how far across they'd get before the carp got them.

[Muddypause]

We used to do much more exciting things like putting them down girl's blouses.

Hours of harmless fun.

[ray7]

We used to put them in the girl`s desks so that when they opened them to get their books they all flew out, about 20 - 30 per desk. Disrupted a full lesson period once.

[ina]

You men! Cruel, cruel...

[Magpie]

>I have noticed daddy long legs around at the moment which is quite a few month early. What has caused this I wonder?


Our seasons seem all out of whack,too, this year, we have only just had our first frost (at least 6 weeks late) and the flowers seem all confused, my forsythia is trying to flower as it it loses it's leaves. Dunno what it is....

[den_the_cat]

there's a water-on nematode solution at http://www.greengardener.co.uk/leatherj.htm but they only sell them when its the right time of year and it isn't now (hope its OK to post commercial links - I'm not affiliated but they have some really good stuff and it seemed relevant)