First Post - Very Newbie-Got maggots I think

Hi, I am very new to gardening. Planted Strawberries last year in medium pots and was looking forward to better harvest this year. Today I was going to re-pot them when I found that some had died and the compost in the container had lots of small white maggotts (or thats what they look like).

Can someone tell me what they are, how can I kill them, should I write-off these strawberries and the soil in the containers.

In brief, how big is my problem and is there any resolution. How to avoid in future would be great. I am a bit paranoid about it, as my husband gave in and allowed me to dig over a biggish part of the garden to indulge the 'frustrated gardener' in me and I have planted/grown a lot of veg etc and dont want to write off my first year be doing something stupid.

Many thanks
Teressa

 

Cannot solve your Strawberry problem,but Welcome to the forum Tal............

Make yourself at home :thumb:

 

Thanks Slinky. If you knew the sheer volume of questions I have it would ruin your week-end! Right now, I just want to get on with all the work I had planned for this week but have stopped dead in my tracks with my discovery of these little critters.

 

Any maggots in containers, kill first, ask question later. Were they crescent shaped withn a brownish head? If so, that`s Vine Weevil, kill on sight.:thumb:

 

Could these vine weevils be the critters you have encountered!?

I'll leave it to wiser folks than me to tell you how to deal with them!

PS Made Typo and called them VICE WEEVILS first time!

 

TAL. If they are vineweavel grubs, i get these in my potted plants,and they are a nuisance,
i use provado on my plants but dont know if it will be ok to use on strawberry plants, but if you see them them jump on them, squish them but make sure you kill them.

 

Thanks Everyone. Definitely Vine Weavel. If I remove the plants ensuring that there are none of these grubs attached to the roots, is it safe to transplant them into a new container??

What Causes them? Any way to avoid? Could I see these in/on my ground planted plants, or is it peculiar to potted plants.

Thanks again

 

I'm no expert on anything so I ran straight to the RHS to see what they say....

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/vineweevil.asp

http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/pests/weaval-vine/index.html



Hope this helps!

 

no expert . pull the other one
:D