What Is Eating My Runner Bean Seeds?

[Sally_Poole]

Hi all,

Have justed had a visit from my elderly neighbour with a handful of runner bean seeds that have been attacked.....

The beans in his hand had lots of little holes in them and one had a little wormy thing attatched with red markings.

My runner beans are planted about 20 feet away from his and are fine.

If anyone can help me so I can help him out I would be very grateful.

Sally

[bloomers]

hi sally i planted 36 runner beans in seperate pots only 4 germinated ''mice''thats what happend to me regards ann

[Flummery]

Are they in the seeds before they are sown - must be, it's too early for harvested beans. Does he save his own seed? Sounds like some sort of weavil. He needs to destroy those beans or I think they would hatch and look for yours! If he sows fresh seeds it should be ok.

[Protea]

It may well be Bruchid beetle - this is becoming a serious pest of bean seeds (runner, broad, and others) - the adults appear in May and lay eggs on the developing seed pods, the larvae then hatch and bore their way into the seed, after a few months of development the adults appear making the small hole you can see.

There is no amateur control method (it is becoming a big pest in commercial seed production too!) you would need to check all the pods for yellow eggs and squash any you see (not really practical). Best bet is to carefully check any bean seed you harvest for the purposes of storage, and don't store any that have holes in them (they won't germinate).

Info here: http://www.winter-beans.co.uk/Pests/beetle.asp
and here: http://www.pestspotter.co.uk/pests/32.htm