leatherjackets

i had a corner of my lawn that had sunk, so decided to cut out a piece of lawn and fill with topsoil. Once the lawn was removed i noticed a few leatherjackets! How do i go about getting rid of these before they do damage to the lawn?

Cheers

Jamie

 

Jamie it seems early for leatherjackets to been in the lawn. There would be treatments available at your local garden centre.

 

what else could the grubs be?

 

Don't know whereabouts in UK you are, Jamie, but they overwinter in the 'lawn' here...millions of them. The escapee chicken sorts out some, as do magpies and green woodpeckers. One tip if the lawn's not too big is to spread black plastic on the grass overnight. They come to the surface then it's easy to sweep them up and dispose of them.
Wouldn't it be a bit cool still for nematodes to work, @Loofah?

 

It's the wrong time of year for the nematode treatments. They need to be watered in when the grubs are small and the soil warm (August-October usually)
They are an annual pest so will be gone when the crane flys emerge later on in the year. You may not ever get them again. Infection is a bit of a lottery.
There are no chemical controls on the market any more. Both DiY and Professional controls have all been withdrawn some time ago now.
Leatherjackets themselves don't usually cause a lot of damage to grass. It's the larger animals which find them that can. If a badger or fox finds a lot of them in the lawn then they can rip it to pieces overnight. It's coming into spring now, so that is less likely.
To be honest, if you haven't noticed them before now, they're unlikely to cause any noticeable damage. I would just leave them be.
As has been said above, you can put a black sheet out for a few days to try to get them to the surface for an avian feast, but you need to be quite vigilant with that method. (so it doesn't blow away, or kill your grass!)
Hope this helps!
Kris