I've put a couple of blogs together recently about Leather Jackets that have prompted some discussion. A recent Online survey we did gathered some serious momentum (thank you everyone) and gained over 410 submissions - that's well over 10% of the golf clubs in the UK and therefore pretty representative of what is going on.
The results were interesting and you can see the dashboard and find links to enter your own data here.........
Only 1% of submissions reported no damage!
The other 99% reported a wide range of levels of damage. The distribution is pretty much representative of the areas of the country where golf is dominant which is a pattern that is seen in PestTracker. The denser areas represent more golf courses rather than more Cranefly / LeatherJackets.
What is interesting is where the 11% that reported "significant loss of turf" is situated.
Traditionally we have been taught that LeatherJackets "hibernate" at depth from November until Spring but I suspect they are much quicker to react to temperature than I believed and the above video shows by using a thermal imaging camera how quickly their body temperature changes. You can see as I pick the LeatherJacket up it quickly matches the temperature of my hand and quickly loses that heat when I put it down.
So simply put the warmer it is the more active and therefore more feeding the LeatherJacket can and will do.
I'm starting to suspect that the traditional lifecycle we've been taught (sometimes by myself!) has been oversimplified.
Looking at the current trend for warmer temperatures it becomes very clear we need to get our heads around this problem pretty quickly.
