The clues were there (VINE WEEVIL)

I have a couiple of those plastic bags for growing strawberries and they both seemed to be in poor condition.
I had my thoughts as to what the problem might be.
First picture shows the poor condition of the strawberries.


Lets look closer at the roots. They shoiuld be nice and fresh and growing stronely at this time of the year.


It did not take long to find the culprit.... the dreaded Vine Weevil again. for the second year running.
If you are familiar with this beast this is a picture of the grub that does the damage. It really loves plant roots.

Only real solution for me is to dump the lot.
Shame really... all that home made compost that took months in the composter... all wasted.

 

Now I know what's wrong with my strawberries.

 

Yeah, they got one of my pots too, and the other two are OK. Luckily I had just bought some new runners so I used those to plant up in fresh compost, and donated the old stuff to the council!

 

this morning i found loads of these in last years shop bought strawberry plant, spent ages taking the blighters out of the soil before putting in to compost bin,
now question is should i have dumped it instead ?
are they likely to have spread to other pots near by ?

 

I didn't know they liked strawberries. Yes, they are likely to be in nearby pots, but not necessarily.

The question is, even if you pick out all the larvae (and expose them on the path for birds to peck at, mwah hah hah) are there any unhatched eggs left in the compost? I would suspect they all hatch out in one batch, so unless there are adults about to lay new ones (and it's winter, so proably not) you will probably be alright. You could put the compost aside for a few months to allow anything to hatch before reusing.

 

thanks

may look again just to be sure i got them all, hopefully the grand daughter will be about as she loves looking for grubby grubs

 

ok so today emptied all soil and washed the roots full examination was given to each plant, i figure i cant do any more harm than the vine weevel is

Found alot more of the blighters so have put strawberries into fresh compost and have stored the old soil in sealed containers

NOW THE QUESTION IS can i leave this soil for a few months then reuse or DO I have to DUMP THE LOT

 

I would keep it for a few months, then reuse. But then, I'm really stingy and begrudge the fortune we have to spend on compost.

Or you could chuck it on the compost heap after a few months and hope that if there's anything else left it gets gobbled by something else before it reaches your plants again.

 

you are not stingy you are like me "FRUGAL":D:D

 

I have a strawberry patch 1.5m x 6m. Yesterday I was digging out some of the plants in a section of the bed that had been in there for approx 3 years to replace with new plants. When digging them out I found vine weevil grubs in the soil. I tried to dig them all out but its inevitable that I will have missed some. I may have been lucky that either they don't attack as much in open soil or they had just started to appear in my patch because there is no issues with my plants or indeed the yield of strawberries last season. Well anyhow, fingers crossed that they don't spread to the other plants.