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Vine Weevil

granmagranma Posts: 1,933
in Problem solving
Saw on Gardeners World a tip for helping  to keep vine weevils from pots .When planting up your pots first put a scrunched up .net bag  from oranges etc. 
Don't know if this works  but it's worth trying .
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Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Adult vine Weevil lay eggs in the pot (from the top), which hatch into larvae in the soil/compost. The larvae don't crawl in from the bottom. 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I sometimes use old bits of net scrunched up in the bottom of pots in place of crocks, and to get decent drainage. It certainly doesn't stop vine weevil, for the reasons @nutcutlet gives  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    edited January 2023
    A layer of horticultural grit on the top of the compost can help prevent eggs being laid and surviving in pots. Note the operative word, “help”!
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    The layer needs to be at least 2cm deep by the way.
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    Knowing which plants they like to eat, and only planting them in the open ground, makes a big difference (in my experience). Our Heuchera's, for example, are in open ground, and do not get attacked. When we had them in pots, we lost all of them eventually.

    I don't recall ever finding the grubs in the ground, although I'm sure they probably do breed there sometimes.  Now that we don't plant susceptible plants in pots, we find that we no longer need to use chemicals to kill the grubs. 
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited January 2023
    Reductio as absurdem: If you plant nothing, anywhere - no problem.



    I have never come across VW grubs in the open ground, but I have seen a lot of the typical adult bites on many plants.

    In an article in Saturdays Telegraph, scrunched-up orange nets were used as a dish cleaning aid.

    I am now hoarding them as more and more useful ideas will come to the fore.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Toads eat them. Not sure how you attract them, though. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited January 2023
    A large female toad is often to be found under my wheelies.  I brush up wood lice from under pot plants and offer these.  We have to be very careful when we move the bins.

    Spme of the carniverous plants are also recommended.  Easier to attract!

    I painted the legs of my greenhouse bench with sticky stuff.  Nothing stuck except dirt.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    edited January 2023
    Vine weevil grubs in open ground are often found in the lower roots of a plant. That is  their food source . I have seen two heuchera plants growing a metre apart, one fine the other infested. All is not lost ,cuttings can be taken but they will need a thorough wash as the eggs are the colour of soil.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • LilyWLilyW Posts: 41
    When the vine weevils were living in my potted hydrangea, I cut a circular piece of weed suppressant fabric and placed it on top of the soil. Covered it in a thin layer of grit to keep it in place.

    surely they can’t get through that? Young larvae Trapped underneath and stopping new ones being laid on top.

    No need for chemicals!
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