Crows also caused problems for League One club Lincoln City last year
The word used to describe a group of crows is “murder”.
And that word could also hint at the feelings of some Grantham Town staff towards the Birds after they damaged their pitch so badly that Monday’s game had to be postponed.
The Gingerbreads were scheduled to face Worksop Town in a Northern Premier League East game.
But crows, lured by the prospect of a tasty meal of beetle larvae, have infested areas of the playing surface making this impossible.
“The club discovered a couple of weeks ago that they have these beetle larvae and the only way to treat them is to replace the turf and that’s exactly what Grantham did,” said ` Radio Lincolnshire reporter Graham Cowell .
“But they showed up this morning and overnight the crows seem to have had an absolute field day. They tore up a patch just outside the penalty area on the north side of the floor. It almost looks like it could have been more than crows, foxes also seem to love the beetle larvae.”
It’s common for underperforming teams to be “taken off” by supporters.
It’s far less common for a bird-like attacking force to stop a team from playing — especially one that won their previous home game 5-1.
According to that Royal Horticultural Society website: “Beetle larvae are the ground-dwelling larvae of the beetle beetle. Depending on the species of beetle, they feed on either decaying plant material or plant roots. Some that are not a garden problem are found in borders and compost heaps.
“However, some species that feed on the roots of grasses can cause problems in lawns.”
The crow problem appears to be particularly widespread in Lincolnshire.
In 2018, four pitches were used for Lincoln and District Sunday Football League games had to be taken out of service after damage caused by crows.
Last season, League One team Lincoln City used bird of prey models to try and deter feathered marauders Attack on their field to bury leftover food found on the terraces.
Grantham now face a race against time to try to refurbish the pitch to a decent standard for Saturday’s FA Cup first qualifying round against Rugby Town.
“I read somewhere about this time of year and it’s almost like a horror movie, you can introduce nematodes [a type of worm] that biologically kill the larvae – and that goes from there, but that involves scarifying and it takes a couple of weeks,” says Cowell.
“It’s almost crows one, Grantham Town zero, isn’t it?”
At least Worksop was spared unnecessary travel – it’s 39.2 miles as the crow flies from Grantham’s South Kesteven Sports Stadium.
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