Infestation in Garden

[Casperroonie]

Leather jacket infestation
We've just moved to a new build, had the lawn done amd spent a small fortune. The grass and garden in general was looking lovely and I was really enjoying it, but in March I noticed it was really patchy and dying. When I looked carefully I saw massive maggots/worms. I called the gardener who did the work and he said it was a leather jacket infestation, likely because of heavy rain fall over winter. Being a new build, he said there was nothing to balance out the infestation and birds would normally eat them. Unfortunately the seagulls scare away pretty much any bird that might eat them.

He put nematodes down and said he'd have to repeat the treatment later in the year. I can only see a tiny improvement.

The other neighbours are having the same problem and everyone is upset after paying a small fortune to get their gardens done in the first place.

Has anyone else had this? What did you do?!?!?! Help!

I’d get this moved to the gardening section, OP. Lots of knowledgeable people on there.

Nematodes and reseeding the grass is the way forward. With it being a new build, I would have a dig around to see what the soil is like. New builds are notorious for just covering over rubble and building waste under a thin layer of soil. You won't get a decent lawn unless you have a good few inches of 'clean/non rubble' soil for the grass to grow into.

I’m buying a new build and in a new build group on FB and so many posts like this. Guess the heavy rainfall has caused it. So frustrating when you’ve spent a small fortune.

Thought we had cracked it last year when we didn't suffer but this spring, we have also suffered from the wriggly little blighters again.☹️
Good soil, strong grass, excellent drainage, a dose of nematodes and STILL our lawn is devastated.
Will re-seed and make sure we do a double (or triple) treatment this autumn.

The starlings are making a meal of them now but the damage is done.

We had this and tried nematodes which didn't really work so ended up spraying the lawn with a mixture of unperfumed liquid soap and Neem oil which kills the leather jackets. Dh found this by googling and ordered both the soap and oil online. We then scarified and raked the lawn which allows new growth to come through and the lawn gradually recovered. It was a huge amount of work as we had a big garden. Will see if we can find a link - we subsequently moved house largely as we hated the amount of garden.

I had exactly this in a new build... every blade of grass got eaten!
In the spring I had the lawn re-turfed, then the following September I scattered leather jacket killer (no idea what type, it was expensive and came with enough for 3 years). Never had the problem again (been in the house 20 years now).