No garden is safe: The bugs who are about to wreak havoc on your perfect lawn

'Horrible little things': Cockchafter bugs prefer to feast on manicured lawns


Gardeners who spend hours ensuring that every blade of grass is the perfect length could be in for a nasty shock.

Naturalists are warning of an influx of beetles that feast on lawns - the more meticulously cut, the better.

The cockchafer beetles prefer manicured lawns to unruly grass because it is easier for them to lay their eggs in.

When they hatch, the bugs eat the roots of the grass, leaving unsightly brown patches all over the lawn.

A combination of warm weather and a trend away from pesticides has sent the numbers of cockchafers soaring this year.

The insects, which do not normally appear until June, have already put paid to the hard work of gardeners at Christ's College, Cambridge, where the usually immaculate First Court lawn has fallen victim to the pests.


Before: A picture-postcard view of the lawns at Christ's College, Cambridge


After: The devastating effect of the bug on the lawns at the college is plain to see


Staff there had no choice but to rip up and replant their once-perfect lawn after attacks by hordes of the half-inch bugs, also known as May beetles, which live under it.

The beetles first appeared around two years ago and the damage has left academics 'distressed'.

Lottie Collis, deputy head gardener at the college, said: 'The lawn was absolutely riddled with big brown patches.


Aftermath: Garden staff at the college digging up the old lawn before it was re-seeded


Pests: A combination of warm weather and a trend away from pesticides has sent the numbers of cockchafter beetles soaring this year


'It looked awful and really upset everybody. We had to do something because the lawn is the first thing you see when you walk into the college.'

Last year the college introduced nematode worms to eat the beetles but the plan failed.

As a last resort, the turf was dug up in January and left open to allow birds, frost and pesticides to reach the roots and kill off the beetles - latin name Phyllopertha horticola - for good.

Nature experts warned last night that 'everything was in place' for a surge in the cockchafer population.

Paul Stancliffe, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said: 'There are certainly more around this year and it is likely there will be even more if the warm weather continues.'


source: dailymail