Morning Light: The Fetchland Gardening Wire

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Lizzie Whizz Feb 2022 5:03pm, 14 Feb 2022 26,275 posts	0 Lizzie Whizz I think you have to feed the badgers something tastier!
3M (aka MarkyMarkMark) Feb 2022 5:28pm, 14 Feb 2022 17,441 posts	0 3M (aka MarkyMarkMark) What could be tastier than a chafer grub?
Eynsham Red Feb 2022 5:40pm, 14 Feb 2022 8,501 posts	0 Eynsham Red Chocolate 🍫
jacdaw Feb 2022 5:40pm, 14 Feb 2022 3,576 posts	0 jacdaw Give them some peanuts / peanut butter.
D2 Feb 2022 9:25pm, 14 Feb 2022 12,268 posts	0 D2 I agree, an alternative is the only answer, but of course they may go elsewhere once they have eaten what is naturally occurring in your lawn so feeding them may be inadvertently creating a long term problem.
larkim Feb 2022 2:58pm, 15 Feb 2022 17,038 posts	0 larkim Thanks all. No plans to offer them different food as I suspect that would just encourage more visits, and I get the impression that to a badger a tasty chafer grub is pretty tip top food. At least having made the connection with the grubs and the badger (via searching twitter for badger and gqt !) we've got something we can try in terms of elimination via the nematode treatment. I did read that putting matting down overnight could cause the grubs to move upwards so when the matting comes off in the morning the dawn chorus come along to feast instead of badgers, so might try that in the time before the nematode treatment can be applied.
Hanneke Feb 2022 5:32pm, 15 Feb 2022 85,697 posts	0 Hanneke Larkim, I don't know how big your lawn is... But, although nematodes are effective, they are also very expensive... Not sure how you could eliminate them to the extent that the badgers stop digging up your lawn...
jacdaw Feb 2022 5:59pm, 15 Feb 2022 3,578 posts	0 jacdaw Have you even seen any chafer larvae? Not that I would ever think about getting rid of them if I had them!
Hanneke Feb 2022 7:15pm, 15 Feb 2022 85,700 posts	0 Hanneke Oh yes, I see them all the time! Particularly obvious when stripping turf. They munch away on the grass roots and can cause bald patches in lawns. Not that I concern myself with such things. They are very nutrient rich. The chickens LOVED it when I was stripping turf! So do other birds...
jacdaw Feb 2022 7:30pm, 15 Feb 2022 3,579 posts	0 jacdaw I meant Larkim, really! I think I'm too far north up here. We just have hundreds of large yellow underwing moth caterpillars (cutworms) chomping our grass roots instead. Fine by me, but they fill the moth trap every late August / September. I've never seen an adult maybug here.