birds are digging up my lawn trying to eat bugs – how do I get rid of them?

You probably have either a Leatherjacket or Chafer grub problem in your lawn. The birds are digging up your lawn to get them. These little bugs are eating their way through the roots of your grass and it may suddenly die and in extreme cases can be literally rolled up like a carpet. If that happens you’ll need a new lawn!

However, all is not lost. It is a good idea to try to identify what bugs are in the lawn, as the remedies are different for each one. The easiest way to do this is take a penknife and cut a circle of turf out near where the birds are pecking and look through the soil to see if you find any creatures.

Leatherjackets are generally straight dark brown and up to a cm long. These are the bugs that can cause the most damage and should be treated.

Chafer Grubs are white bugs with a black head, about cm long. They are generally curled up in a ‘C’ shape. These can live in your lawn for many years and are less troublesome, but can still cause damage.

It is possible that you may also see orange worms called wireworms. These are less troublesome.

You have a couple of options to stop the birds.

A) Feed the birds! They’ll much prefer a free meal than trying to dig one out. This won’t fix your grub problem though.

B) Bring the bugs to the surface so that the birds can pick them without ripping your lawn to bits. This can be done by leaving a section of black plastic on your lawn overnight, this will bring the bugs to the surface, and you can remove it in the morning to give the birds a free meal.

C) Kill the bugs! This can be done with a pesticide or nemetodes. I would contact your local lawn care company for pesticide application, as they will be licensed to apply chemicals and will have knowledge of which is most effective. Nemetodes can be effective but you need to apply the correct ones for the bug (which is why it is important to find out which ones you have!) and they need to be applied and watered in correctly.

Overall, don’t try to get rid of the birds, they are your friends in the garden and will be tidying it up for you!

Source(s): Lawn care business owner.
http://www.lawnsciencesouthmanchester.co.uk/cgi-bi…

I hope i am the first to tell you thats a goo thing that you have birds at all on your property. This took me yrs to figure out: Feed the birds, they at the insects.

I have a piece of property that acres and was full of Mosquitos… I saw lots of birds too.

so I went to the store and bought wild bird feed and I take a half cup times a day and throw it out the back for the birds (i also threw some on the my garden bad and am growing my owe Millet, they love that too)

anyway, since I started feeding the birds millet…my lawn is perfect, I NEVER get bites from any bugs when i go outside…and MOST important my doggies have fun with the birds and they do NOT get bit either..

therefore if you buy a bag of wild bird seed, use it and enjoy the perks..

good luck

Grass Eating Bugs

Source(s): https://shrinkurl.im/azo

Huge mounds of filth with a hole size of half of inch or better, is generally a mole or vole. You’ll see apparent giant tunneling tracks. Smaller mounds and hole diameter of /eight-/’ inch or so can be a mole cricket. Pesky critter who will consume the roots of the grass and go away tell-tell tunneling all about. Tunneling is probably not as noticable until grass has been broken vastly. Very small quarter size mounds with small holes might be earth worms or blood worms. Mostly related to rich moist soil. Another likelihood is should you live close water, and the mound is say roughly the scale of a tea cup with a gap that’s pencil sized, it would be a crayfish. Hope this helps.

I’ve never seen birds do damage to a lawn and we sometimes get flocks of s of blackbirds fly in and mess around to eat bugs. You can’t shoot them unless they are starlings or house sparrows. All other birds are subject to game laws.

If you kill one bird then leave it in the middle of your lawn on a pike or something that will scare off the birds better than anything else then when they are gone your can remove it.

You should probably mow the lawn.

They come even more as bugs are easier to catch.

More birds will eat all insects.

They will eventually leave you with clear grass 🙂

Hope this helped

Plastic snakes are a good way to scare off birds. Birds don’t enter my courtyard to my bedroom because I have plastic snake in the tree and on the table. Might help?

Get rid of the bugs and you’ll get rid of the birds. Are these grubs or something of the sort? Check the local nursery for proper fertalizer fo rthis.

Your lawn will be healthier and look nicer if you have lots of birds eating those bugs.