Evil weevils
Alan Edmonds
Posts: 8
Hiya all,
I knew something sinister was afoot, as a beautiful coral~coloured heuchera I'd bought earlier in the year had been flagging for some time. This is the only one have in a pot & all other ground~planted varieties have been full of growth & rewarded me (& the bees) with some wonderful sprays of flowers.
Well, i emptied the pot & suprise suprise it had a small commune of vine weevil larvae taking chunks out of the roots.
They have been promptly fed to the robin, but i am now worried that unseen eggs or missed larvae could attack my other (unpotted) heuchs. Any ideas? Btw, the others are different varieties & have been in the ground for at least a year.
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I've found, here in my garden at least, those dreaded vine weevils don't differentiate between heucheras in the ground or in pots. Both are susceptible to attack. It's easier to treat those in pots with Provado Vine Weevil killer. This product is not designed for use in the open ground as far as I am aware.
Out of a collection of 25 different Heuchera I now only have 1 left. I gave up on them 2 years ago. I could not be bothered cleaning them, propagating them and bringing them on only to be disappointed at a later date.
You could go out after dark and search for the adults. I was recommended to put a white sheet under them since they are difficult to see when they fall on their backs. I am not sure either whether the adults remain over winter or die off. Hopefully someone else will give you a better solution than I can.
An adult, just in case you don't know what they look like. This one ended up squished to death on my kitchen worktop.
and some of her offspring put out for the birds!
I'm the opposite Tetley OK in pots and hanging baskets for a few years now. . . watered with Provado in spring and autumn.
Thanks for your comments folks. Sorry to hear that most of you have had trouble with these little asassins too. I'll be keeping a close eye on my other plants from here onwards!
Are there any other plants especially tempting for the critters?
Partial to tender fuchsias
Sedums, Geums, All Primula.
And Provado is no longer available.
Apart from nematodes, what's the alternative Berghill?
Berhill. I've just had a look and you can buy Provado online.
As long as it kills the bu-##ers. M-U.
We dug over a part of the garden, probably in November last year and even though we had a great crop of tomatoes/cucumbers in there in the summer, come November digging time, we scooped up...(hubby) scooped up at least 50 of them in a very small radius. I'm sure someone on here recommended nematodes but not sure, anyway we bought some and they vanished. Applied on two occasions...March/May then or from August/November. As I'm aware, pots are more prone to have the damage. October this year, we lifted our passiflora to put into a larger pot and wrap for winter and we found another 25 in that pot alone. Treated as before. Hate the little beggars!
If you go to Amazon it says that Provado is currently unavailable. None of our local gardening outlets have it on their shelves either. You may be able to buy it from non-EU outlets and import it.