Spring lawn care. How to save your lawn from Leatherjacks using Worms.

追加: 2026-05-11

[00:00:01]Well, folks, time to get the worms out.

[00:00:04]That's right. Get the worms and the lawn. If you remember from last year, I done a video on this stuff here. These are neatode worms for your garden, for your lawn. They help kill crane flies or daddy longle larvae, the little leather jacks that eat the grassroots and the lawn and kill your lawn throughout the year and throughout the wintertime. done a video on this last year and how to use these things and stick them down and I have to say these were fantastic.

[00:00:29]Basically, I'm putting this down to two things. These and the Motion robotic lawnmowers, the luba and that I think from them there and this it's helped keep the soil so much healthier. But these especially, this is the first year our lawn hasn't just died away. Every single year after the winter time spring comes along, there's just no grass left.

[00:00:50]bits out the back will be going yellow and some bare bits will be completely bare but the front lawn will just be completely gone just muck and no grass left you have to reso it every single year because of these we boys these are we pests in the garden this is the only way to kill them now and I've had great results with this so I'm putting them down straight away this year to give it a good helping hand to make sure it doesn't happen again so this is just another video on how to use this here shake it on here out see how good it is since last year so this normally just dies away over this side sort of be okay but the rest would just be going all yellow and down here will be completely gone but now it actually is looking quite good and this is only April only the start of spring and it still hasn't died now I've cut this already I've cut it with a we makita and we've had the luba money out a few times as well so she's well cut down to about 25 mil but she's still a bit damp you can really do about Little bit of a puddle over here. Never really grows very well that spot because of the water. But we're going to do a video now. I'm putting down these leather jacks. These ear worms for the leather jacks. Help the lawn. But that there is looking fantastic after the winter. It's never come up that well again. Now, these aren't the be all end all. They're not going to suit everybody. For one, not everybody's going to want to be working with little worms. Now, they're tiny. Once you actually get these are the eggs inside. You put them in water and you're mixing them up and the eggs hatch basically as soon as they get into the water and the little worms come out.

[00:02:20]But they're microscopic. You can stuck stick your finger in the paste and you won't even see them unless you really really zoom in with a camera. You might be able to see them wiggling around a wee bit. Can't really you don't see them at all. It's not like a big massive worm. They're teeny. They're microscopic. So they go into the soil and they attack the larve, the leather jacks, and they basically eat them from the inside out. And then they start a new life cycle then making new eggs and keeping them in the garden. So once they're in they do a good job. But these here are expensive. This me packet does about 100 square meters. So small suburban garden perfect likes of mine which is only like.1 or 2 of an acre grand for that. But anymore you're going to need more packets and at 20 a packet is quite expensive. But here in Ireland and the UK and I think most of Europe this is really all there is. You can't really get anything else. There's no spray you can put down in the grass anymore now that kills the leather jack, the band that has all been done away with. So, it's either this or cover the whole garden and a tarp and let it sit there till sometime in the morning and then pull the tarp off and let the birds have their feast. If you cover the whole lawn, the leather jacks will still come to the surface and they'll feed and the dark under the cover once you pull them off the end, all the birds will see them and they'll all go down. That'll also help it. You need a big massive tarp up in the lawn all night long and you have to do it quite a few times. We bit more labor intensive. This is deer but very easy to do. All you need is a bucket and a watering can. That's it. One tip is if you are putting it on, get a drill with a whisk and really stir it up. Really agitate it and the water to break them all down because if they get any weed bits in that just clogs up the spout on the watering can. So get it in a bucket 10 L of water, 5 L of water, 10 L of water. Mix it all up. Then pour some onto your watering can, fill it up the rest of the way with fresh water and just start spreading it over your lawn.

[00:04:10]100 square meters you can do. Really, you'd need two doses about four to six weeks apart, but it's quite expensive. I did this once last year and got great results. So, definitely would definitely recommend this here if you haven't bothered with level jacks. So, this is just going to be a we how-to video on how to do this. So, when you get this stuff, make sure you store it in the fridge whenever you receive it. Don't be just leaving it at room temperature.

[00:04:32]Keep it in the fridge. I think it'll last for about four weeks or so or till the dates up on the packet. So, this will be good for the beginning of the next month if you keep it in the fridge.

[00:04:40]It's in the fridge or grand. So, store it till you need it. When you get a good bit of weather, you can go and put it out. But the ground needs to be above 10° C. So, it's about 14° now. So, I'm going to stick it out here as early as possible.

[00:04:53]Try not get it on your hands or all over the bench as I did last year because they are little tiny worms.

[00:05:00]Now, the only thing you're going to need is a bucket. I'm just going to use an old paint bucket. Basically, that's been lying around for years. It's not even all that clean. Well, I'll give it a we rinse out here. There's a bit of stuff in the bottom. It's only a bit of muck.

[00:05:14]We'll just rinse that out so the we bits don't clog up the spout as well. Rinse it, but anything at all just to mix this here stuff up and then we'll get her get her out in the lawn. So, we'll rinse this here first and put about 5 or 10 lers of water onto it.

[00:05:31]Even the front lawn Lawler still survived the winter.

[00:05:37]Now all you need is a bucket and a stick just to stir it up and then a water can watering can to apply it. But the handiest thing, quickest is definitely a little whisk and just use a drill for it. And because we're dealing with worms, I'm just going to pull out the cheap and cheerful me that we 50 moment on the tear down video on class. we drill. And let's face it, it was going to be risked getting covered in worms.

[00:06:01]I'd rather get this one covered in worms.

[00:06:06]So, this just speeds up the mixing process.

[00:06:18]Get that ready and get these boys under.

[00:06:20]I spilled these spilt them last year and it went all over the bench and it's not exactly something you want to be cleaning up. Try not spill it.

[00:06:30]But they're only eggs at the minute. So don't worry too much about it if you do.

[00:06:46]And they're not dangerous.

[00:06:52]Just get it all in there to get as many weed boys in the soil as possible.

[00:07:02]And then just give it a good mix up.

[00:07:15]You see there's plenty of little butts on there. If you leave it like that there, just give it a light stir, all them bits is just going to get into all the little holes in your water spout on your watering can and just clog them and you'll be forever just poking them out to free them up again. Give it a really good mix.

[00:07:50]Uh, that should hopefully be enough.

[00:07:53]I'll stick a we bit on here so we can have a look at them when they hatch.

[00:08:00]You remember last year I used this one simply because it has a wide spout and I already drilled out all these here little holes just to make them a little bit bigger so it doesn't clog as much.

[00:08:10]But it does empty the watering can extra fast.

[00:08:14]So I think from memory I might have done this with more mixture. So I had to put down more watering cans. Had to do more trips to get the whole lawn covered basically.

[00:08:30]So now this is a slow spot slow part.

[00:08:32]Just going back and forth pouring this in the lawn. Fill it up again. Put another we spoonful into this and just keep going back and forth.

[00:09:33]and just stir up the butts again and keep going.

[00:09:52]Now, if you're thinking that's a we bit cruel in the peri leather jacks, they don't feel a thing.

[00:09:58]Not until after they've been eaten from the inside out.

[00:10:02]We boogers.

[00:10:21]Front lawn here is where we had the most bother. So, I'm giving this an extra dose of it just to make sure.

[00:10:33]I just out of curiosity want to see what these things look like.

[00:10:38]Want to see if they're alive, too.

[00:10:43]So, we'll see if we can have a look at them. Get out the Ul here. Yes, still sporting the Ul phone phone class job.

[00:10:51]Going to see if I can have a look at with this cuz I sent this in for the last video and I've barely ever used it.

[00:10:56]So, have we go at it now? microscope.

[00:10:58]You can actually get for their phones.

[00:11:00]Microscope or we endoscope camera. This will come in handy for this.

[00:11:09]Why would that be stuck to there?

[00:11:12]That's me cover.

[00:11:26]Lights are on.

[00:11:35]Like I said, don't even know if these things are alive or not.

[00:11:46]CL. Look at that.

[00:11:56]Can't see anything there anyway.

[00:12:01]I don't want to stick it under there.

[00:12:04]Last time you could just see it and we spelt but we piece here. The spelt can actually see them moving around.

[00:12:24]Not that there's an awful lot to see.

[00:12:30]There they are.

[00:12:33]A few we worms. They are teeny.

[00:12:39]Right enough. They are tiny we things just down here on a little splash.

[00:12:45]Basically, it's not the best setup on the screen, is it?

[00:12:55]That's sort of zoomed on.

[00:13:04]Ah, here we go.

[00:13:11]Yeah, that's better. We can record and actually put it on the screen.

[00:13:16]So, yeah, definitely plenty of action going on there.

[00:13:22]And you'll see them all riding about.

[00:13:29]It's a cool camera. Actually, you'd imagine getting them in your finger ain't going to be too big a deal.

[00:13:39]Anyway, ain't exactly much on it to even see.

[00:13:46]Pretty cool. It's handy piece of kit there.

[00:13:55]Like that.

[00:13:57]And that unlone has come in handier and handier all the time. Don't use it all the time when you need it. It's very handy to have. I'm going to stick that screw back in again because this thing does get kicked about an awful lot and gets left outside.

[00:14:15]because she's fully waterproof as well, but I don't think it's going to be if you leave that screw out.

[00:14:21]Right, that's my curiosity sorted.

[00:14:26]And that's it. Couldn't be easier than that. Now, the reason I've done this now today as well is because it might be blue skies up here.

[00:14:34]Over here, it's about to rain. So after this is on, you really do want to water them in to make sure they get off the blades and into the soil because they have to be in contact with the clay. So if you're putting them down, do water them on. But it's about to rain here now anyway. That's why I wanted to do it now just before the shower and get them all washed. But that's it. That'll hopefully keep the leather jacks at bay.