The leatherjacket, its habits and some remedies – archive, 13 June 1936

13 June 1936 A reader asks for advice on a troublesome grub that has a tough, brownish-grey skin, and is commonly known as leather-jacket

South Manchester
A Staffordshire correspondent sends several specimens of a grub which, she writes, “is playing havoc with my antirrhinums and other plants, but especially the antirrhinums.” The ground, she explains, had not been dug over for many years and previously had been a dumping-place for refuse and old turf. She wonders whether this has had anything to do with the numbers of the grub, how she can get rid of it, and what she should do in the autumn.

The grubs are the larva of the crane-fly, or daddy-long-legs, and are commonly known as leather-jackets, because of the toughness of their dirty, brownish-grey, and wrinkled skins; and as they have been troublesome in other districts, and are likely to be more troublesome before the summer passes, the replies to the question may be of some interest to others with plants in jeopardy.

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