Can I treat lawn worms organically?

As professional horticulturist or lawn care professional you'll be more than well aware that Carbendazim gets a lot of bad press.

Carbendazim is a fungicide but is also very effective as a worm suppressant. However, Carbendazom's future remains uncertain and it's under review by the EU and could be banned in the future, partly because it kills worms, and worms are one species that are likely to enjoy greater protection in the future.

As an active ingredient, Carbendazim has been linked to conditions such as birth defects, cancer and damage to the reproductive process in mammals.

Carbendazim is also harmful to fish and other aquatic life and because high water volume is needed during application onto ground that is laden with water, there's danger that Carbendazim can find its way into water courses.

For a turf care professional there wasn't a great deal of an alternative. Garlic repels worms but it is expensive and very short-lived so therefore not commercially viable.

An organic solution to suppress casting worms

CastClear is a relatively new product, hitting garden centre and trade shelves in the autumn of 2011 but it's already gained a lot of attention.

Because CastClear is a completely organic non-pesticidal solution to casting worms - containing 5% amino nitrogen with and 15% bio-organic sulphur - turf care professionals can be comfortable that there will be no long-term side-effects from its use.

What the manufacturers say:

CastClear uses a surfactant system that moves the nutrient into the upper soil structure and fixes it there providing good persistence of deterrent effect until breaking down to natural nutrients absorbed by plant roots.
As the soil air to water ratio changes in the more traditional autumn months, you will notice an increase in worm cast activity. The wetter the autumn or winter, the greater the worm activity will be. The root zone of the lawn will become spongy as the worms undermine the upper surface and mowing will become difficult, especially with a cylinder mower. The use of the lawn will diminish as a result of the difficult surface conditions.

CastClear is available from Amazon

[Disclaimer]