BadCritters: Common Garden Weevil

I actually think these little guys are cute but they still get an automatic squishing when I find them munching on my edible plants 🙂 .

They leave tell tale little holes in the leaves of your greens, fruit trees, strawberries, beans, peas and the like.

Their grubs live under ground munching on plant roots.

Species: Otiorhynchus sulcatus

Identification:
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Adults are a few millimetres long
Damage:

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Control:

I am lucky in that I have only experienced very light infestations. Prevention is best because removing whole plants is often the only solution to heavy infestations.

Here are some tips:

  • Keep weeds down and hence reduce a food source for weevil larvae.
  • Visual inspection of the top and bottom of leaves and removing adults helps break the cycle.  I squish them and push them into the soil so their bodies are added to the soil mix or you could throw them to your chooks.
  • I find that spraying pyrethum keeps the adults off the leaves.
More Resources:

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