Badgers are probably after grubs in your garden

I am sorry that badgers are digging up lawns. Members of the badger group have visited gardens, including some in Loughborough, to try to help householders with severe lawn damage.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 restrictions were in force for much of last year and prevented us from doing these visits and they are in place now.

The damage usually occurs in autumn or spring when the badgers dig small holes to try to reach and eat the grubs that live on the roots of the grass. If these grubs are not removed by badgers, they would eat the roots and kill the grass, leaving unsightly bare patches on the lawn. You need to try to remove the grubs to stop the damage to your lawn. It used to be possible to do this by applying pesticides that kill the cockchafer and leather-jacket grubs, but there are now no approved chemical products for this on sale in the UK.

You can safely treat your lawn treat biologically using nematodes, but these are expensive and not totally effective.

You need to try to improve the condition of the lawn as the grubs thrive in damp, shaded lawns with moss. Spiking and scarifying the lawn should help, as will treating the lawn with an ammonium-based fertilizer such as lawn sand. The smell of such a fertilizer will also deter the badgers who have very sensitive noses!

I hope this is of help.

Pam Mynott, Secretary of Leicestershire & Rutland Badger Group Badger Recorder for Leicestershire & Rutland