Brown patches on my lawn

Something is making circular-ish brown patches in my lawn. Having looked through Harrod's Little Book of Least Wanted Pests I thought it might be chafer grubs or leather jackets but I really don't know. Someone else suggested vine weevils. We do seem to be getting groups of very noisy crows (might be jackdaws - they fly away too quickly as soon as I go near the window) congregating on the lawn but if they are supposed to be eating the pests, they're not doing a very good job. This started a couple of months ago - round about May, I think.
 
Do you have any idea what it might be and, if so, what can I do about it? Do you sell a product which might kill a whole range of lawn-chomping pests?
 
I hope you can help. We don't have the best lawn in the world but just now it's looking even worse than usual. Even the children have noticed.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you.
 
Kind regards
 
Karen Joseph
 
PS. We don't have any pets (does the neighbour's cat count?).

This does sound like Chafer grub (at this time of year) or early Leatherjacket grubs. I would suggest you have a look under some of the brown turf and if you can see any grubs (White for Chafer and grey-brown for Leatherjackets), then you know you have them.

There are nematodes that can be applied to the lawn to kill these pests but the grubs must be present. I do not think it is Vine weevil, as they do not normally attack lawns. I suspect it is Chafer grub and the birds are being attracted to them. They then rip the lawn up looking for them. Try using Chafer Grub Killing nematodes if this is the cause.

Hope this helps.

Regards Julian