What Insect Is a Leather Jacket

Exactly what are leatherjacket insects? Leatherjacket pests aren’t actually insects. The grub-like pests are the larval stage of daddy long legs, also known as leatherjacket crane flies – those big, mosquito-like bugs that fly around your porch light in late summer.

How do you get rid of Leatherjackets?

The most effective solution is to either cover the whole lawn (or just the affected area) overnight with black plastic sheeting – this encourages the grubs to come to the surface so they can be brushed off and destroyed.

What do leather jacket grubs turn into?

Inside this pupae the insects transform over several weeks into the adult crane fly. This is the hard-cased form which the leatherjacket grub takes on once it is ready to change into a crane fly. As the larvae emerges from the soil it sheds its skin and flies off as an adult crane fly. This carcass is left on the lawn.