Vine weevils!

So it's not just me, then, being plagued by the booggers!!

Nematodes are one way but there IS a nastier way and I bought some last week at a local allotment association. It's called
Provado Vine Weevil Killer Concentrate. It was loads cheaper at the local allotment association rather than from Amazon. I haven't used it yet tbh because I'm a bit nervous - and it can't be used with edibles, but I'm sick of my pots and tubs being decimated by these nasties so willing to try anything!

What I don't know is what to do with the affected soil containing the horrible grubs. Discard? Bin? You can't compost it, can you? :-o

hildajenni

I hope you don't mind but I have bumped this thread as you may find it handy.

I hate the little b----s and I have had them for years!

www.gransnet.com/forums/gardening/a1195889-VINE-WEEVIL

Try the vine weevil nematodes. I dont like using the very nasty insecticides.
Vine weevils are a much bigger problem in pots than they are in the garden. I don't know why.

I have applied both vine weevil and slug nematodes this year. The slug problem was really bad last year. I picked up and despatched over 100 in one day. The slug nematodes seem to have helped.

I suspect I've got vine weevils. Or at least, my garden pots have I think. Do they eat flowers?
I recently discovered that slugs love red wine. I didn't have any beer, so put some red wine in a lttle pot sunken into the ground and loads of slugs flung themselves into it and drowned.

Henetha

They lay grubs in the soil which are white with an orange tip. They then grow and form legs, turn grey and are adult when they get their hard to touch feel.

They annihilate the plant by eating their way through the root , which can literally behead the plant.

If you have them you will see them but this time of the year they are getting to the adult stage pretty quickly.

They can cost a fortune to try and get rid of them but I find sifting the soil for grubs, squashing the grub is the only fail safe way to know you have at least got rid of some of them but my garden has them by the ' hundreds' even though I use Provoas.

I have never seen vine weevil eat flower heads but they do eat leaves, you see a munching on the outside. Hold a torch underneath the leaves at night and you can spot their shadow but only when fully grown.

Thank you Pogs. I think I have seen the grubs. They are a nightmare, aren't they. I will certainly look for them and kill them manually from now on!
I often go slug hunting at night, so will now also look under leaves for these beastly plant destroying weevils.

Your welcome.

Happy hunting.

I have not noticed as many lilly beetles as usual this year. I am wondering if the cold north wind we have had is putting them off.
Last summers little larvae grubs could still be chomping away my plants underground though.
I have used provado vine weevil killer if they get really bad. An infestation can do so much damage.

The little devils have eaten the roots of 4 potted fuchsias I overwintered. When I went to repot them, the top of the plants just came off on my hand with no roots at all attached. I tipped out the soil and sure enough, there were the grubs which I had great pleasure in squishing.

Sorry, not a gardener myself, it sounds like something out of Harry Potter!

I have in the past sieved the soil and picked out the grubs....the birds love them!

We had to cut down a lovely vine the other year because of them, but it has grown back with no sign of them.Have not spotted any more as yet on any other shrub or plant but will watch out for them.

I'd over-wintered the begonia plants we put in wooden tubs in the town for six years and they'd grown huge and were much admired. Then they got vine weevil. This was in the town square, all paved and Tarmac'd. So I assume the little b**ggers must be able to fly!

We emptied the tubs completely, threw out the corms, sprayed the tubs inside with appropriate insecticide and used completely new compost, but when I went to wake up the replacement corms this spring there were several little weevils again. I'd kept the corms in our utility room in a clean plastic tray so they must have been hiding in the joints of the wooden boxes. Little blighters. We're growing geraniums this year sunk in in their pots. The theory being the weevils won't find their way through the plastic and starve!

I have a container and trough garden as we have a patio courtyard and an extension roof and this is always a problem.

I absolutely HATE Provado... way too costly and I had to take a bread knife and saw that stupid measuring thingy off as it was impossible to use efficiently.

Nematodes in containers did not do the job very well as they are sort of trapped if there's nothing to eat.

Get BugClear Ultra Vine Weevil Killer Insecticide. I get it on Amazon if I can't get to the garden centre. I could not get it in B&Q last year. Some say it's bad for the bees, but I have so many bees (not wasps) right this moment that I have to keep my windows closed. They are going mad for the azaleas which are in full bloom.

You mix it according to the concentration you need in a watering can with a spout. Twice a year and I am mostly grub free. I do the fertiliser in the mix at the same time, saves doing things twice.

NfkDumpling Sun 07-May-17 15:06:11

I think they abseil up and over the neighbours' 6' stone walls, along with the snails.

Yep, we have the little blighters here too! Found out my neighbour spreads the soil from infected pots on his boarders!! Grrrrrr! He told me he is giving up bothering with pots any more. But as far as I can see his action of 'letting the birds eat the grubs' is just passing on the problem to the entire neighbourhood!

also joining in with the pole vaulting slugs in our garden

I sort through the compost thoroughly and put the grubs on the bird table - the blackbirds have a feast day !!

If only you could borrow some hens!

Warning! This post may does contain images of dead vine weevils.

I used vine weevil nematodes and they work 2 very dead vine weevils in the soil. A horrible colour. No nasty chemicals on them.

The nematodes seem to have been quite effective. Two of my affected four rose bushes seem to be recovering now, but I don't think we'll get many flowers this summer. I have my eyes peeled for any more of the little rotters!

I got rid of hundreds of these at the weekend. As a relatively new gardener I wasn't sure what to do with them so I have put them in the green bin along with their slug and snail friends. Probably the worst thing to do but there were hundreds of them in some areas of soil. Can anyone tell me what "nematodes" are please?

Gillybob Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms which burrow into their individual target pest and kill them.
different pests have different nematodes.

They need applying about twice a year. They seem to have been working in my garden.

www.nematodesdirect.co.uk/‎

The alternative is to take the plant out of the pot. Get rid of the compost, wash through the roots of the plant until clean and repot in new compost. If feasible that is. I wouldn't struggle with a tree