Little witchetty grubs!!

[bjblackmore]

Hi Guys,

This is not strictly a veg or fruit related question:

Anyone know what the attached are, and how to get rid of them? They just destroyed a bed of Bizzie Lizzies by eating the roots away as far as I could tell. We just looked at the Bizzie Lizzies, and found we could pick the stems up, and there was nothing in the way of a root system attached! Couldn't even find any roots inthe soil!

[ginger ninger]

VINE WEEVIL'S..horrible little monsters..i have trouble with them, they live in the soil and eat all the roots, one minute your plant looks fab, next dead. I use "BUG CLEAR ULTRA" you water it into the soil twice a year, i've tried nematodes, cos i like to do things organically (but these little monsters are quite resilient) it kills the eggs n grubs (thats what you have in your photos) so preventing them growing into adults, they nibble the leaves, its the grubs that cause the most damage. If you google vine weevil, it will show you the photo's of the adults...good luck xx

P.S are you growing in containers...they looove containers.

[vicky]

Vine Weevils! As above, plus some plants are more suceptible eg primulas

[bjblackmore]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, these bizzie lizzies were in a long window box. They took out 5 large, healthy plants in the space of 2 days!

I think there may already be some adults around, as some of our plants do have holey leaving, with no signs of catapillas.

I shall get some bug clear ultra, not to worried about organic as this isn't soil that will be used for veg/fruit.

Thanks

Ben

[ginger ninger]

I get lots n lots of pleasure stamping on the adults ..try it... it'll give you a lot of satisfaction...horrible little monsters, i really hate the dam things .
Watch out though, when you touch them, they fall to the ground and you can't find them, if you put something under them beforehand, like a piece of kitchen roll or news paper to catch them, you'll not loose them...have fun..I DO
P.S there very active at night.