Controlling worm casts in your lawn

The worms do a splendid job in the soil just beneath the grass crown, but it is a pity that their casts pose such a problem for lawn owners. Worm casts on a lawn and any sports or amenity turf surface can cause severe problems for more than one reason.

Soil deposited on the turf surface will quickly clog up and stick to the moving parts of cylinder and rotary mower and also accumulate around rollers and wheels and operators feet giving them the classical 1970's platform shoes in no time!

Soil wrapping around rollers will interfere with the required height of cut by effectively lifting the mower above the grass meaning that the cylinder and bottom blade are artificially higher and as a result, inconsistent grass height happens. Soil is also abrasive and if a machine is constantly forced to work in far from ideal conditions, sharpening and maintenance or even part replacement costs can occur.

Worm casts are also an ideal weed seed bed; even if you switch or brush greens and fairways, seeds, blown around by the wind will germinate in the soil leading to further remedial maintenance. Left uncontrolled, the worm casts form hard mounds on the surface of the lawn making it bumpy to walk on and mow. If the surface of the lawn is wet following rain or a heavy dew, the worm casts pick up on your feet and stick like clay to your boots as the soil deposit is full of sticky worm body secreations.

We highly recommend preventative maintenance in advance of anticipated worm activity. Higher than normal casting activity can occur directly after heavy rain and when soil temperatures are still fairly high.

The ideal time for worm cast control is at the very end of the summer leading into the autumn when rainfall and humid temperatures are expected. The chemical does not kill the worm, merely forming a barrier in the soil that the worm will not pass through as it is an irritant to the worm and it stays away for 2 - 3 months whilst the chemical is effective in the soil.

Carbendazim is the only effective control product that is available to turf care professionals, and can be mixed with Chlorpyifos for the treatment of Leatherjackets (Crane Fly larvae) - sometimes a wetting agent is used to aid passage of the product through the soil structure if Chlorpyrifos is not tank mixed.

Further reading: Worms casts in lawns - the facts

Need to buy Carbendazim? - if you are a professional user of pesticides and have the necessary NPTC FEPA qualificatons - please email us for prices.

If you have an area that you would like worm cast control products supplied and applied, please read this.

Buy a Worm Cast Deterrent Product from

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