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Fuschias and vine weevils
Verdun
Posts: 23,348
A friend of mine has a lot of fuschias in pots that soon will be overwintered. She often loses many of them because of vine weevils. She has a few standard varieties too that she does not want to lose
apart from Provado, my option, any bright and novel ideas out there to control these critters? Ideally a cost effective solution....??
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Posts
I've found that using a loam-based compost with some added grit seems to discourage the vine weevils from taking up residence , still get some but not as many.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
vine weevil nematodes work well for me in my greenhouse,
You used to be able to use Armillatox but it was such a niche product they could not keep supplying it. I treid vine weevil nematodes this year.
Nothing else much seemed to deter vine weevils in my garden. I have used the provado product, you can apply it close to the plant stem and do not need to spray it all over the place.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
As with all pests like this go find a couple of spiders from inside your house and put them on the plant, they'll soon take care of that business. They're especially good at clearing up green and black fly problems in green houses.
I Provadod all my little pots and then put a layer of gravel on top. They don't like it scratching their wotnot apparently!
I'm hoping that will be cure followed by prevention but only time will tell.
I had a rhodie in a pot and it was like egg and dart but since I moved it away from a low wall, it's not so bad. (Maybe they just ran out of edges
) I suspect they were abseiling in off the raised bed.
You can still buy Armillatox on line - and I have found that it is the most effective chemical way of controlling the critturs. Gritty compost (loam based) also helps. (Only use it on non-edibles, of course).
I use the vine weevil nematodes very successfully. I get them from Green Gardener on Amazon as they send you a packet for warming weather in Spring and for over wintering in Autumn. I do ALL my pots - you only need a little slurp in each pot but water before and keep watered for a while. I have had hardly any vine weevil damage since using.