What are these on my lawn?

[NaThenThee]

Just seen tens if not hundreds of white slugs/grubs on my lawn whilst walking through it this evening. Does anyone know what they are? They are about the length of a slug but much slimmer and all milky white in colour. It has been very warm but incredibly humid and wet here for the last couple of days so I wonder if this weather has brought them out - as well as some rather large spiders!

Could they be leather jackets? The larvae of crane flies / daddy long legs.

Have you got a picture?

Here's a picture.

Larvae of crane flies.. daddy long legs...... squash or leave ..your choice

I think they might be leatherjackets - they certainly fit my google of them. We only have a tiny (9mx10m) new build garden with very poor soil that's only 15cm deep in places. I am astounded at the diversity of invertebrates and mushrooms/toadstools that I keep finding in there despite not having any plants yet.

We're not touching the garden until next year apart from a grass mowing about once a month and I'm reluctant to take away a food source from the many birds who are enjoying the feast right now. I now they'll destroy the grass but would it recover over the autumn and winter ready for next year?

Why would it destroy the lawn? But Yes as long as you try not to walk on the grass when the ground is wet, as it will compact it and squeeze the air out, and also damage the newly growing shoots in spring. It should recover.

@CustardyCreams from my (albeit limited) understanding of leatherjackets they feed on the roots of grass, giving it a haystack/yellowy burnt look to the grass. This makes sense as our grass is looking very haystacky/yellowy and thin in places despite the large amounts of rain and sun we have had. I haven;t had to mow the grass in about 6 weeks whereas before it was looking spindly by 2 weeks and definitely needed mowing by 4.

Ah I see! I had no idea. Hmm then let's hope the birdies eat them up quickly.

I don't think I could bring myself to kill them, and if there are too many to pick them out and chuck them in a nearby playing field, then I would probably just take my chances that the grass will recover. If there are patches I suppose you could scatter some seed once the larvae have gone.

I know, I'm loathe to kill such a valuable source of food for the birds too. Google tells me that the only way to control them is with nematodes which are parasitic round worms that infect and feed off the larvae (grim I know!). Just found out they can continue eating the grass roots over winter so I think we might need to try and control the outbreak a bit :(

We have these in our new built garden, and they have destroyed the grass over the last 18 months, what did start to grow back is now totally gone and only grew a bit over summer.

We are ripping what's left of our garden out next week and back filling with Type 1 and some decking.

Have you noticed your garden having lots of crane flies (daddy long legs with wings)?

Lawn grubs, they eat the grass, but birds eat them so hopefully… 🤷‍♀️

Slow worms?

@FAQs

Slow worms?

Do you mean - would slow worms eat the grubs?

leatherjackets definitely. we are on a new build estate and they have been a massive pain for loads of people, so much so that a lot of people have now put down fake grass

Oh never had those. I think nematodes are seasonal so personally I'd try and get a dose down if still available. Or it might get a lot worse and need chemicals. Depends how much you value your lawn.

We have something that attracts starlings and blackbirds earlier in the summer. I guess it's leatherjackets.
A few years ago we had tons of craneflies/ daddylonglegs but now just see a rare one about so I presume we've reached a balance.