I would water everything in sight with a solution of Armillotox
Better safe than sorry

"Kay Easton" wrote in message
...
In article , Lynda Thornton
writes
In article , Lynda Thornton
writes

I have a potful of nasturtiums and a pack of as yet unplanted night-
scented stock plants absolutely *crawling* with small long-snouted
weevils. They are coming into the house as well, are they a problem
if
they get inside and is there anything I can do to get rid of them?

I've tried to find out what they are and they seem to fit the
description for wheat(?) weevils? If so, what are they doing on
these
plants?
My beetles are much smaller than these, just a few millimeters long at
most, very round bodies and noticeably long elephant-like trunks, quite
delicate. They also fly.

Not vine weevils, nowhere near as large.

I think I've identified them from searching photos on the web:

Curculio salicivorus

Anyone any ideas of whether these are a real problem and if I need to
try and get rid?

I can't find this particular species in the Collins guide to insect, but
there are 500 species of weevil in the UK.

It's the larvae which will cause the problem, if any.

If it is the species you say, the species name suggests it eats willow
(salici =willow, vorus = eating) so maybe not a danger to stocks and
nasturtium.

But where have they come from?

Such a lot together suggests either you've bought them in inadvertantly,
or that you've had a mass 'hatching' from larvae - if the latter, and
your plants aren't already dead, it would suggest that they aren't doing
much harm!

My course of action, if I were sure they were native (and not
accidentally imported from overseas) would be to remove them from my
pots and let them lose in the garden, but I have a marked preference for
not killing things.

The Natural History Museum in S Ken used to have a weevil expert, but I
imagine you wouldn't get a quick answer.

Sorry - not a lot of help!
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm