Talkback: Pollen beetles and sweet peas

Posts

• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  August 2009

  My sweet peas have been covered in pollen beetles and no amount of shaking gets rid of them is there anything i can spray them with ?

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  August 2009

  The best way really is :
  Put sweet peas in a jar of water, put it in fark shed/room with a single light source that is away from the sweetpeas....pollen beetles leave sweetpeas and go to light source!

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  September 2009

  I planted some Giant Hibiscus roots in individual pots at the end of February this year. They started to shoot at the beg. of June and have grown to approx. 4ft but only one shoot on two of the plants. The smaller one has 6 shoots. None have had any flowers this year. I understood they would have blooms as big as dinner plates this year!! What have I done wrong and will they come up again next year. They are supposed to be hardy!

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  July 2010

  We are plagued with pollen beetles in our runner bean flowers. Will this prevent them from producing beans?
  If so what can I do?

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  July 2010

  I also have vast numbers of pollen beatles and I have companion planted them with my runner beans in an effort to increase pollination of the beans. I am fighting critters all around this year. Slugs as big as mice, rats under next doors shed, lily beatles,mice, black fly on the beans and probably many,as yet unfound. I almost despare. I thought that the harsh winter would have destroyed over-wintering critters.but apparently not. They like my roses and clematis appear to have been invigorated. I wish that I was!

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  November 2011

  Here in Gloucestershire my sweet peas have been prolific but have masses of pollen beetles.
  
  (Also am constantly picking off sweet pea leaves covered in caterpillars (as well as leaves covered in eggs). The cabbage whites love my pea leaves and my onion leaves as well, absolutely decimated.)
  
  :-(

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• Gill Petts Posts: 3

  July 2015

  This is the first time we have ever seen pollen beetles. We had put some in vases. Fortunately we noticed them on the flowers and so we left them in the kitchen for a while. There were hundreds of them moving towards the door and window. It has put us off picking them which is a shame as I love the scent of sweet peas in the house. How long does this go on fo?

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• Gill Petts Posts: 3

  July 2015

  For the first time we have had pollen beetles on our picked sweet peas. How long does the infestation last as seeing hundreds of them crawling over the work tops has put us off picking them. This is now my third attempt at completing this blog- so apologies if I end up with multiple posts!

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• Topbird Posts: 8,349

  July 2015

  Hi Gill

  I'm not sure how long the problem with pollen beetles will last - possibly for most of the period you will want to pick the sweet peas. It has always been a problem for me too. 

  If you have a garage  try putting the vase(s) in there in a cool spot for a few hours. If there is a window place the vase away from the window and shut the door. If there is no window leave the the door slightly open. 

  The idea is that the beetles will crawl away from the flowers and towards the light. You might have a garage full of beetles but better that than in the house. 

  Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  

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• Gill Petts Posts: 3

  July 2015

  Thank you

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