Pea & bean weevil

[PyreneesPlot]

Morning all.

Every year my stored dried beans show evidence of bean weevil. My solution is to not start eating the beans until all evidence of hatching out has stopped and then we eat what is left undamaged. But obvioulsly I need to stop the eggs getting laid in the beans - I assume in the flowers - in the first place.

What is odd, is there is never any damage on the plants themselves, and I never see adult weevils except hatching out in my bean jars. I thought about a fine mesh/net to keep them out but that would keep the pollinators out too.

Any other (non-chemical) solutions?

[BertieFox]

If they are just for eating, not keeping for seed, then why not bag them when harvested and then pop them in the freezer? That stops the weevils from hatching and developing. Like you, we have almost given up on storing dried beans as they were all affected by the weevils in the jars. I think the locals here use some noxious chemical fumigant to stop them developing, but we would prefer the weevils to that.

[PyreneesPlot]

Thanks for the advice, Bertie. Alas, I only have a little three drawer freezer currently stuffed to the gills with raspberries, tomatoes, courgettes and the like, whereas I have lots of room for dried pulses - and we eat a lot of them too.

I have to find another way!!

[roitelet]

Iv'e never done it but, could you bottle/can them? I've done lots of other things this year and it doesn't half free up space in the freezer.

[Two_Sheds]

there is never any damage on the plants themselves, and I never see adult weevils

I don't know if it matters to you ... but they're not actually weevils*, they're bean seed fly or bruchid beetles


* pea weevil doesn't lay eggs in the seed, it lays in the soil. Damage is very obvious to the plant's leaves, but the bean itself isn't damaged

[PyreneesPlot]

Thanks Two Sheds. Bruchis beetles it is - and explains my lack of success when searching the leaves!!

I've canned tomatoes Roitelet but that's all. I'll look into it for next year. And I guess the energy used in bottling a big batch more than offsets the energy used in preparing 2 or 3 portions from dry. Sounds like a plan!

[PyreneesPlot]

Quick update on this as I started using the red kidney beans today.

I have one bed in which I grow all the beans for drying plus a big frame for the climbing beans.

I planted alternating rows of red kidney bean (canadian wonder), flageolet beans (chevrier vert) and cannellino. The kidney have no beetles, the flageolet have about 20% damaged and the cannellino about 40%.

Of the climbing beans the borlotti have about 5-10% damage and the bigourdan white bean (my local bean!) has been almost destroyed - 75% beetle damage.

So it looks like in 2013 I'll grow and dry the red kidney and the flageolet and Bigourdan will have to be bottled.

I thought it was interesting the beetle didn't attack the red kidney at all.

[Two_Sheds]

I had a lot of holes in my broad bean seed from last year: but I decided to try chitting them anyway. Surprisingly, the attacked beans still germinated, no problem.