Experimenting in your own garden and talking with nurseries will give you other specifically suited plants for dry shade. Be sure to amend the soil well before planting and use 2-3 inches of mulch over the soaker hoses after planting. Be sure to identify the problem before considering treatment. If the sample shows fewer than 25 cranefly larva per square foot, the turf will be likely to outgrow the damage. If more than 35-40 per square foot, treatment may be needed.
Healthy lawns cope better with the occasional cranefly infestation.
Sometimes people mistake compaction, disease problems, and lack of good care for cranefly damage. Keep the lawn properly fertilized, watered, and mowed to allow it to grow strongly. Birds control some cranefly larvae by pecking them out of the ground. If chemical controls are chosen, be aware that Washington State University specialists do not recommend the insecticide diazinon because it is toxic to birds and has killed birds in western Washington. Good care and tolerance may be the best cranefly management tools just now, though specialists are looking into substitutes for these two toxic materials.