what is munching on my broad beans???

[salome2001]

Thanks TS, looks like a bit longer in the cold frame then.

Just checking I've got this right- the weevils have pupated in the soil and come out to eat everyone's beans, they were on the plot already, and the beans I bought to sow weren't the source of the infection??

And regarding the fact that the larvae will be eating the roots of the beans, I should pull up the plants after harvest and burn them rather than leave the roots in to fix nitrogen??

[Flummery]

They're a beggar arent' they? Still, who can resist a frilly edge?

[Peas'n'Kews]

Would chickens eat the larvae etc? Just thinking that turning the chooks loose on the affected plot (8when free of veg!) might help solve the problem? ~And of course, that assumes that you keep chckens (I don't - yet!)

[Two_Sheds]

the weevils ... were on the plot already, and the beans I bought to sow weren't the source of the infection?

Yes, they are there already. The weevils aren't in the bean/pea seeds

the larvae will be eating the roots of the beans, I should pull up the plants after harvest and burn them rather than leave the roots in to fix nitrogen?

They don't fix nitrogen (in the soil)

... but burning the roots is pointless: the maggots will already have pupated by the time you pull the plant up after harvest

Would chickens eat the larvae ?

They might do, but you aren't going to find them 27cm under the soil