broad beans stripped?

[Crazysprout]

Hello people, just been down my allotment and nearly all of the broad bean plants I put in 3 weeks ago have been eaten? All the top leaves are tightly closed that are left? Any ideas? I have nematodes in the ground to kill slugs.

[Greenleaves]

The ground maybe too cold for the nematodes and they have died off

[Two_Sheds]

It could be pea & bean weevil

If you haven't checked them for 3 weeks, you won't have noticed the gradual munching

[Crazysprout]

thanks for the replies. that pea and bean weevil damage looks just like the shape in the leaves that are left. time to spray me thinks!!

[WPG]

We had a bit of a problem with bean weevils last year, but this year my broadies have been shredded by them - even the tough over-wintered aquadulce. I'm hoping the plants will manage to grow quickly enough like last year, but at the moment they're all looking a bit ropey. So far I haven't found any effective organic cures.

Strangely, both last year and this year the weevils haven't gone anywhere near my peas or mangetout - the broad beans seem to be their favourite.

[Two_Sheds]

weevil damage ... time to spray

seedlings can be sprayed with pyrethrum, deltamethrin or lambda-cyhalothrin , but that's going to kill beneficial beasties as well, so isn't ideal.

The weevil will survive happily on weeds, eg clover & alfalfa until beans become available.

You can prevent so much damage by not planting out your peas & beans until they're pretty big. That way the damage will only be cosmetic, and you'll still get a crop of beans

[RaptorUK]

You can prevent so much damage by not planting out your peas & beans until they're pretty big. That way the damage will only be cosmetic, and you'll still get a crop of beans

My Broadbean and Winter Field Beans have all been damaged by Pea and Bean Weevils, I'd never seen their damage before so googled and read up on them. Fortunately my plants seem to be big enough to grow through the damage . . . you can see the characteristic notches on this Field Bean . . .

[Two_Sheds]

the worst damage is to the roots of seedlings, from the larvae, that might not survive their injuries

Leaf damage is just leaf damage, it doesn't affect the plants too much

[WPG]

This is the worst year yet for them on my broad beans Some of this is slug damage, but mostly weevil damage. I've got about 80 plants, and not sure how many will survive. If anyone knows of an organic spray I'd be keen to hear.
On the bright side, if it gets much worse then I can enter them as my 'disaster' in the grapevine competition