Vine weevils ate my strawberries

[magicmarigold]

Hello, all I seem to do on here is ask questions but here I go again.

Been on holiday for a week, my strawberries which are in a tiered planter were looking a bit dodgy before I went but I assumed it was the planter as some other strawberries I have in regular pots are doing really well . However, went to check them this afternoon and notches out of the leaves looked a bit suspicious, gave one a gentle pull and it of course came out, only a few straggly roots with the darn vine weevil larvae hanging on them. There was no point even trying to save the plants they were gone so they've gone in the bin, however do I need to get rid of all of the compost in the planter aswell?

I've ordered some nematodes to treat my remaining strawberries and pots around the patio just incase so would this be enough to use in the compost to mix with fresh compost and use again, or do I need to bin the whole lot? I'm feeling pretty sad that I've lost so many plants as the strawbs were by favourites from.thr whole garden

[SarrissUK]

Don't worry about asking questions! We all do! Sorry to hear about your strawbs
I've never had vine weevil, so I don't know how effective the treatments are, sorry!

[Bluenowhere]

Personally for the sake of a bag of compost I’d bin it and not take the risk and focus on treating the other pots with the nematodes.

[magicmarigold]

Thanks for replying, I guess I know you're right! I'll bin it today, treat everything when my nematodes come and use my tiered planter for some lettuce. Tbh I didn't like it for strawberries anyway, I kept having to rotate it so they all got sun.

I'll buy some runners later in the year and will just leave half the slots at the back empty.

Thanks again!

[It never rains..it pours]

They are quite painful, I have the vine weevil t-shirt already. Think best change compost as nemotodes wont get any unhatched eggs. Did read putting a thick layer of grit on the surface of pots deters the adults laying eggs ?, maybe someone can confirm this please

[magicmarigold]

Well we seem to have loads of them this year, just found a fully grown adult on my living room floor bleughhh. My nematodes were dispatched this morning, I will be out in the garden this evening hunting for the adults and crunching them.
I'm off to sow some purple basil to make up for the lost plants sob sob

[magicmarigold]

Too add to my tale of vine weevil horror, my patio cherry tree is now looking very sorry for itself. It's the tiny type that's like a stick with leaves which are now all going yellow and falling off, has the notch marks out of the leaves and I even found one of the adults munching away at a leaf last night ( squashed it of course)
I treated it with nematodes two days ago so do you think I should just leave them to do their magic and continue to squash the adults, or should I dig it up, clean the roots (if there's any left) and repot it. I'm a bit worried the stress of digging it up might kill it completely. Although looking at it, all the leaves are dropping or yellow anyway so I might have lost it already...

[It never rains..it pours]

Think Nickdub is the resident fruit tree expert to answer this. Personally not had them attack a tree yet but can only suggest feeding it and keeping in cooler place, so what roots left have least strain on them possible.