ID this critter please

I have a smallish wooden container I used to grow some strawberries last year.Today I have removed the plants cleaned the container ready for some flowers this year.
I found several of these little beasties in the compost.
robert

 

That my friend is the dreaded Vine weevil larva.

 

Palustris
Am I glad I posted....yes I am
Am I glad you replied...yes I am
Am I glad I binned the compost and the plants...yes I am
Now it seems I need to keep an eye open for them..
I can do that.
Thanks again
robert

 

:euw: I had hundreds of such like last year in pots and had the horrendous task of emptying all pots and knocking off the soil and picking these horrid critters out and then re-potting .... I haven't dared look in the pots this year after such a wet winter to see if they have taken over again as I'm sure there must have been eggs left on the roots somewhere .....s00k

 

I don't like to be the bearer of bad news - but, The eggs are not visible to the human eye so its virtually impossible to find them until they are hatched out. Every beetle one can lay 100 or more eggs. I had over 120 different fuschias - including one bred specially for me in the name of my daughter who died. I lost them all to vine weevil. I hate them with a vengeance On a more positive note Bio Provado Vine Weevil killer seems to work well. Good luck. :gnthb:

 

If you do find the beetles a boot on top of them brings a very satisfying CRUNCH!!

 

Phew...
It now looks like I have the task of checking all my pots for this beastie.
I have tracked down this critter on the www and found this site for further info if like myself just did not know about the vine weevil.
robert
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/vineweevil.htm

 

I too have just lost strwaberry plants in a pot to these little gits!!
I also have herbs in the same pot which at the moment seem to have survived (it's a multi planter, the strawbs were in the top and the herbs around the edges). I went to the garden centre today and got the provado VW killer. Hopefully, that has now killed the larvae. I lost a Hydranga to VW last year.
What I don't like about the provado is that it's very expensive. I have loads of pots and to treat all of them would cost a fortune. Just gonna have to keep an eye out and hopefully no more have been infected.
Damn Vine weevil!!!

 

It's still cheaper than replacing all your plants I think. I found one treatment for pots seemed to be all that was needed for a season.
I second your sentiment!

 

Hmm, I just saw some of those in my garden whilst digging. Now I know what it is, I'm a bit worried. I lost all my lettuce last year, could this be the culprit ? Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi Freddy
I think we need one of the experts to answer your question.
All the reading I have done on the subject only suggests the beasties in containers not in the ground, which comes over as a bit strange.
I checked all my pots this morning and found weevels in three of them so thats more plants and compost binned. Such a shame.

 

They will be in the ground if you have them in pots. The little critters will be everywhere. I go out in the evening with a torch finding the beetles - goodness knows what my neighbours think!
By the way don't even think of re-using the compost and the plants would be better burned.

 

I get those every now and then when I am digging. And I flip it over to where some birds are and yell
"Dinner". Of course my birds understand me.

 

For a biological/organic control, www.scarletts.co.uk they sell nematodes that have worked for me an d is easy to apply.

 

Whilst yes if you have them in pots then you have them in the ground, the good news is that they tend to eat n a straight line so do not mormally totally destroy a plants root system as they do in a pot where they go round and round.
Secondly there is not need to bin the plant, only the compost. I bought a Hebe some time back and found over 30 grubs in the pot. All the pieces of the Hebe had some root so I treated them as cuttings and grew them on and sold them a £1 each (clean of course!). Wash the plants roots clean of all compost and re-pot in fresh treated soil and with a lot of TLC you will not lose the plant.
One thing you can try, the eggs are laid on the soil around the stem of the plant, so a single stem plant can have a plastic cover (like the ones sold to protect Cabbage plants against Cabbage root fly. If the beetle cannot find the soil, it does not lay its eggs. The protection can be covered in at least 10 cms of grit or gravel as a further help.