TOBY BUCKLAND
Microscopic worms can save your lawn says Toby
“Badgers dig looking for juicy grubs”
YOU may not know this, but badgers are keen football fans. I have no evidence they actually play the beautiful game or swap stickers of their favourite stars, but what I do know for certain is that they adore football pitches.
The field in which I play a weekly lads and dads game has suffered a badger pitch invasion and these nocturnal living excavators have turned what was a Monday night field of dreams into an ankle-twisting nightmare.
Dog-owners and their bone-burying pooches were suspected of causing the damage at first, but I welcomed the bobbles that the initial holes caused, as they offered a believable excuse for my unbelievably bad football skills!
As the damage worsened, however, it became apparent that what was running on from the sidelines was bigger and far more determined than the occasional dog, and now it’s like playing on a ploughed field.
Badgers dig because they’re looking for the juicy grubs that live in the tangle of turf roots. Chafers and leatherjackets are about an inch long with legs at one end and squirming white tubular bodies. The thought of eating them might disgust you and me, but to badgers they’re the equivalent of a half-time pasty!
A tell-tale sign that the grubs are present is the spectacle of starlings pecking over the lawn. If they’d been spotted early and treated with nematodes (see below) the problem would have been nipped in the bud.
The cost of applying nematodes to the whole pitch would be eye-watering, but enough nematodes to treat 500sq ft is £99 and that’s plenty for the areas of damage. And now is the perfect time to repair the grass.
First it’ll be cut very short before the worst areas are rotavated and raked flat.
The rotavator exposes any remaining grubs to the birds while the autumn rain should help the chopped-up roots bounce back, although I’ll scatter some fresh seed just-in-case.
QPR’s quotable football manager Ian Holloway said after beating Cardiff: “I couldn’t be more chuffed if I was a badger at the start of the mating season”.
Well, when our pitch is back to being playable – fingers crossed by November – I’ll be pretty chuffed, too.