What are these?

[dee1]

Well Talulah40 correctly identified these,the best way to deal with them is to let the birds loose.
Cover the ground with black plastic when you remove it in the morning they should waiting to allow the birds to dine on them.
It is a great way to encorage birds to the garden,they will keep the problem in check.
Just a word of caution if you use an insectiside it can affect the birds.
Birds actually do alot more damage control,than they are given credit for.

[chintz]

Only, take your salt shaker and sprinkle some salt over each one, just like you do with slugs. Hopefully that will kill them.

[talulah40]

only, they will be gone soon, so don't worry about them too much, they are changing into adults at the moment, i think you were just unfortunate that we had such heavy rains, this is what brought them up to the surface, as far as using insecticide goes i wouldn't bother. they are not something to worry about in the average lawn, more a problem for golf courses on greens and the like. If you look in fields around the country at this time of the year you may notice large nos of birds especially rooks feeding on grassland, leatherjackets are what they are after, they love them!

sue

[inishindie]

Hi

I would be tempted to think that they were leatherjackets too. If you tread on one they should pop as they have a tough skin. As suggested the birds love them. Here's a bit about them.....from leatherjacket to cranefly.

Crane flies or daddy long legs are among the creatures that cause the most panic in a bedroom, apart from probably spiders, that is. Attracted by the light, they fly in the window and start to flap against lampshades. Apart from this they do no harm at all. Craneflies are merely large flies. They do not feed as adults, nor do they bite or sting.

The damage these insects do is when they are in the ground. The female lays her eggs in September, usually in the lawn. The resulting, larvae, called leatherjackets, feed on the roots of plants. They continue to feed throughout the winter and the spring. Identifying the pest is easy. They are dark grey in colour, about 1inch long (2.5cm) and look as though they have no head. In lawns that are effected you will notice that grass growth slows and yellow patches appear, the grass is easily pulled up, with little or no root growth and starlings peck at the grass in an attempt to eat the grubs


CONTROL
You can dig the grubs out of the ground and leave them out on the patio for the birds (I have tried feeding them to the gecko but she won’t touch them), but this proves to be far too messy and time consuming. Another method I find very useful is to put a large sheet of black plastic on the affected area and leave overnight. In the morning when the sheet is lifted there will be the offending leatherjackets ripe for the bird table. There are natural products on the market to kill the leatherjackets. They contain a parasitic nematode called steinernema feltiae, which kills leatherjackets but is harmless to children, wildlife and pets. They are effective when the soil is above 10°c / 50°f, so do it soon if that is the route you want to go down.

Good luck

[summersun]

Aaah poor Only , if only you lived closer i could borrow a few hundred chickens or turkeys and lend them to you ... they'd be gone so quickly .... but lots of yeuchy mess left from the birds ....


How about spraying the whole area with weed and bug killer!!! ;-} hope you get rid soon .....

Love the comedy Sabrinabrayghostie :-) ...


Shame there are no Aussies near you ...they'd eat them ... and love them


SPRAY .... is my answer ... or ill send you my kiddies, they will love to pick them up and step on them ....



Love Summersun xxx

[premiercounty]

What a horrible picture on a Monday morning! Anyways, here's how to do it.... and for any people who do the "its cruel" jab...its better than walking on them, good god, that sensation is stomach churning! Before you go to bed (if thats when they're in their army load...a drum of salt, and throw it very generously everywhere. The sound isn't the best, so maybe get your husband to do it. Its like a squeeling squishy sound. Drum loads of salt girl, in the shrubbery, garden, walls, you name it. The following morning will tell alot. They will be dead, but the salt kinda dries them up, so no squishy bodies to walk over before going to work. Unless, you do the boiling water and Jeyes fluid, but there's a lot of cleaning after. With the salt, it dries them out and the birds eat them. They look like snails (without their houses-homeless snails-had to laugh at that comment), but would treat them as snails, burn the feckers to death.....;)

[chipperfield]

Hi, I could be very wrong but these may be the larvae of the Cranefly (?) which is commonly called the Daddy Long Legs (I think). Have fun and check it out.

[noddytown]

You'd never know where they came from ...Keep an eye out for a tiny spacesip nearby .
Put one in a jamjar and send it to a lab
or put a good closeup of one on youtube .
Put one into a goldfish bowl and see who eats who .
Maybe they'd make good fish bait
You could make a few bob , selling them to a tackle shop ??

[Only]

Well I got up this morning and there were only a few around - and when I came home at lunch time I'd say the birds had got them.
I haven't looked in the garden for more ... I'm kind of afraid to :-O
I think I'll leave them be and hope to God no more appear ... it's a total mystery where they came from!

[bullg]

hi had same last year.
found out 2 weeks later they were caterpillor's
and thurned out to be lovely butterflys.

[Bawnie]

Hi Only, glad your nightmare was short lived! :)

[carebear3]

my husband says their leachess put some salt on them and if they start to squerm their dying off let use know

[Only]

Thanks for everyones help - thankfully the worst of it seems to be over now .... you couldn't tell I'm squeamis at all could you ... :D

[kitty]

was it yeah on the Gerry ryan show?

[Only]

I only heard someone mention yesterday that there was someone on the Gerry Ryan Show about it happening elsewhere too but they had only caught the end of it so I don't know what was said .... can anyone fill me in?

And now the bad news - more on the footpath and driveway this morning! I spotted maybe 20 around the back of the house when I was going to work. I'm sure there must have been more but I didn't go looking ...soooooo, they're coming back! ... Nothing like the numbers on Sunday morning but a lot more than yesterday morning .....