"Sharon Hughes" wrote in message
...
Dear All

I am seeking some advice please. I've done a quick search on this group
but
cannot immediately identify the FAQs file - any pointers in the right
direction would be much appreciated as I have a feeling that my questions
will have been covered before.

Vine Weevil. Got the blighters back again, my second year in the garden
and
the 2nd year they're back. Last year I picked up some std vine weevil
killer from the garden centre and duly drenched pots (at the time no
borders) twice, early summer and Oct time. This year, lots more work done
and I now have raised beds AND the same amount of pots. I spotted the
adults about 3-4 weeks ago (pale walls which they show up lovely on!) and
have dealt with the obvious ones. I went onto the internet tonight to
check
up on other 'killers' available and found that one product has been
removed
from the market - one which I remember as being so much cheaper than the
tiny little pots I bought at the garden centre last year.

I have around 50 pots, varying sizes (most around 12 " on average), raised
beds (each around 8
ft long x 3 ft high). How the heck do I drench this lot to kill the
beetles
without it costing the arm and leg I'm already missing? Obviously it's
going to cost me more to replace the plants I've already bought if I let
it
go, but it's a close call buying teeny pots at £4.99-£5.99 which treats
such
a tiny area at a time. I'm doing the vigilant thing by keep moving the
pots
around to get the slugs and beetles first thing in the morning but have
stopped short (yet) of torchlight. (Done it before with slugs in the last
place - done away with slug pellets by enticing in hedgehogs with a
certain
brand of cat food, a certain other foodstore's own make didn't quite cut
the
crust unfortunately!!)

I really want this garden to work, it's so important to me, but not at
the
expense of a re-occurring cost that is going to break me and take away the
joy I have with making such a lovely oasis in the middle of inner-city
dwelling. Perhaps I'm just being naive, and that's why the garden was SO
bare of anything even remotely green when I moved in? I need to find a
way
of making this work. All help appreciated.

Sharon

************

Afraid *I* can't help, - sorry!
They beat me in the end. I used 12x1 foot square plastic 'pots hung from
brackets ,(to foil the pests) with car grease barriers on them on all
supporting and crossbeams in my greenhouse to grow each of 10 Maxim
strawberries (to curry favour with Her indoors.) They would get going nicely
and then many used to collapse and on examination the accursed little
curled-up-bodied blighters had been scoffing away at the root meat.
And that's the problem. my brother, a clematis nurseryman now pottering
around with the angels used to use a watered powder but it got banned. He
said that because they are right in the middle of the root column the new
killer- powders , when watered on the pot surface didn't reach the little
blighters
feeding away there up in their little dugout holes in the root mass.
In an adjoining greenhouse I had two mature grapes growing. I never saw any
beetles under the loose
branch 'peel' but I decided to sacrifice them. For two reasons I can't
assess whether the reduction in the number of those pests was due to the
vine absence or the introduction of a frog and toad pond around about that
time.
If you find a cure do let us know at once, please!, - t'Missis misses them
thar strawbums!.
Doug.
***********