Chafer Grubs.. crows.. rooks.

JHT

Member
Location
Wales
We are having terrible trouble with crows/rooks digging up the fields so I’ve had a dig as well and there are lots of Chafer Grubs in the soil. Looking around as I type this I can see well over 50 acres of land between me and my neighbour that’s been destroyed in the last 10 days. They started off on some dry banks but are even digging up good aftermath now. All you can hear is crows- hundreds of them.
Any idea how to get rid of the grubs?
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
We are having terrible trouble with crows/rooks digging up the fields so I’ve had a dig as well and there are lots of Chafer Grubs in the soil. Looking around as I type this I can see well over 50 acres of land between me and my neighbour that’s been destroyed in the last 10 days. They started off on some dry banks but are even digging up good aftermath now. All you can hear is crows- hundreds of them.
Any idea how to get rid of the grubs?
By using Crows :scratchhead:.

Free and environmentally friendly.
 
Yes I can see what you’re saying- but I’m not going to fatten many lambs where they’ve been digging the ground up!


We need a photo to assess this Corvid Cultivation.

Have we found a new cultivation method ?

But seriously, we're gonna get about 6+ days of rain soon. Won't that fix the situation with new growth ?
 

TL100

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Wales
We've got them in an old meadow, you can pull up clumps of sward the size of a dinner plate with one hand easily. The grass roots have been killed and the soil underneath is a really fine tilth.
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Location
East Mids
We (all grass) are noticing massive numbers of craneflies this year and one ley that was looking poor has had lots of seagulls and corvids for the last 2 months so I assume is heavily infested.

It was supposed to be cultivated to let them have a chance to do their job and clean up the leatherjackets prior to reseed but the contractors have a bad Covid breakdown so work is getting behind.. Interesting times.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
As posted above, no chemical control options available/legal now, or for some time. @Breakthru has a product that may help (supposed to help with leatherjackets & slugs) which isn't a conventional insecticide, and which doesn't cost the earth to try either.
 

Barleymow

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ipswich
Have badgers doing similar damage on the lawn ate the sweet corn too ,is it possible to trap them and re home them, I know of a suitable one a friend suggested one
 

Lincs Lass

Member
Location
north lincs
Badgers going after them?
No its crows ,,we had the same problem 4 ish years ago when it was hot and dry for along time ,,I dug out three separate front lawns on one road because grubs had killed the grass and then the crows moved in ,scratted up the rubbish for the grubs and took what left for nest building
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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