strange little creatures?
 

hi im new to gardening and i have just started making a garden at the back of my house. I bought some plants yesterday from a plant sale. Some Geraniums i bought seemed to be potted in garden soil. I just turned it out the plant as i was going to repot it when i look at the plant in my hand, the soil is infested with these white maggots. At least thats what i think they are. They all seem to be sleeping, are they fly lavae or cud they be something that could be harmful to the plants, what shud i do???

strange little creatures?
 

If they are vine weevils, and it certainly sounds as though they are,
then you need to repot, and treat the newly repotted plant agains vine
weevil larvae. It may even be a good idea to wash the roots of the
plant before you repot. As long as you repot straioght away you
shouldn't cause the plant ant ill effects.

mike

strange little creatures?
 

wrote in message
oups.com...
If they are vine weevils, and it certainly sounds as though they are,
then you need to repot, and treat the newly repotted plant agains vine
weevil larvae. It may even be a good idea to wash the roots of the
plant before you repot. As long as you repot straioght away you
shouldn't cause the plant ant ill effects.
mike

If indeed VW:
Kill them all before you are overrun with them!
Wash the plant roots until NO soil remains. Repot or plant out
Put the soil from the pots in the dustbin
Jenny

Have they got brown heads and are they in a 'C' shape? If so, you've got vine weevils!

strange little creatures?
 

killem killem killem!

strange little creatures?
 

wrote:
gardeningroger wrote:
hi im new to gardening and i have just started making a garden at the
back of my house. I bought some plants yesterday from a plant sale.
Some Geraniums i bought seemed to be potted in garden soil. I just
turned it out the plant as i was going to repot it when i look at the
plant in my hand, the soil is infested with these white maggots. At
least thats what i think they are. They all seem to be sleeping, are
they fly lavae or cud they be something that could be harmful to the
plants, what shud i do???


--
gardeningroger

could be vine weevil larvae. They eat roots (and the adults eat shoots
and leaves) and easily kill what they eat. Google them for pictures
e.g.

http://www.crocus.co.uk/pestscards/vineweevil/?

Check all those plants fro them; vine weevils can be a nuisance and
some people get plagued by them.


thanks for that link, Des. I have just read it, and am amazed to hear
that the vine weevils have found the dubious nirvana of feminism: they
reproduce without the need for make (I find that deeply creepy).
But anyhow. I get seriously scared when 1) I saw one of the adults on
my front step last week end and 2) a big belfast sink type trough I
keep flowering plants in all the time has recently seen all my primulae
kick the bucket. When I lifted them, the crowns appeared completely
severed from the roots - which appears to be the type of damage VW
grubs do. 3) finally, do nematodes occur naturally in the soil? I
spotted some little grubs in post I was refilling which had a good
number of even smaller grubs apparently attached to them. One of those
I found had been sucked half dry by them.
4) Thank you Des. I am now going to be totally terrified of VW, the
existence of which and the damage from which were purely theoretical
for me up until now... Too much knowledge does sometimes be a
dangerous thing...

Cat(h)

strange little creatures?
 

Cat(h) wrote:
snip 3) finally, do nematodes occur naturally in the soil? I
spotted some little grubs in post I was refilling which had a good
number of even smaller grubs apparently attached to them. One of those
I found had been sucked half dry by them.
snip

If the nursery from which you got the plants uses nematodes, then it's
perfectly possible they'll reproduce.
Here's a useful link on how to use them for both slugs and vine
weevils.
http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seed...matode_faq.htm
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon

strange little creatures?
 

Cat(h) wrote:
wrote:
gardeningroger wrote:
hi im new to gardening and i have just started making a garden at the
back of my house. I bought some plants yesterday from a plant sale.
Some Geraniums i bought seemed to be potted in garden soil. I just
turned it out the plant as i was going to repot it when i look at the
plant in my hand, the soil is infested with these white maggots. At
least thats what i think they are. They all seem to be sleeping, are
they fly lavae or cud they be something that could be harmful to the
plants, what shud i do???


--
gardeningroger

could be vine weevil larvae. They eat roots (and the adults eat shoots
and leaves) and easily kill what they eat. Google them for pictures
e.g.

http://www.crocus.co.uk/pestscards/vineweevil/?

Check all those plants fro them; vine weevils can be a nuisance and
some people get plagued by them.


thanks for that link, Des. I have just read it, and am amazed to hear
that the vine weevils have found the dubious nirvana of feminism: they
reproduce without the need for make (I find that deeply creepy).
But anyhow. I get seriously scared when 1) I saw one of the adults on
my front step last week end and 2) a big belfast sink type trough I
keep flowering plants in all the time has recently seen all my primulae
kick the bucket. When I lifted them, the crowns appeared completely
severed from the roots - which appears to be the type of damage VW
grubs do.

Arrrgh; thats them. You will never guess what their favourite plants
to eat are?
You guessed it, Primulas (at least I think it's Primulas; and maybe
Fuschias; can't remember).
I have only seen them once; a whole wriggley mass of them in the roots
of a plant we bought in one local garden centre. Otherwise, we have
been lucky.
We have no primulas and only a few pots left.

As for the adults, unfortunately, there are several large grey weevils
that look like that and I do not know how to tell VW as distinct from
the others. There are somethig like 50000 species of weevil described
and you get something like 500 or more in the UK.

No idea about the nematodes though ..... they certainly occur naturally
in the soil in large numbers but you know know most of what I know
about them having read what I just wrote.

3) finally, do nematodes occur naturally in the soil? I
spotted some little grubs in post I was refilling which had a good
number of even smaller grubs apparently attached to them. One of those
I found had been sucked half dry by them.
4) Thank you Des. I am now going to be totally terrified of VW, the
existence of which and the damage from which were purely theoretical
for me up until now... Too much knowledge does sometimes be a
dangerous thing...

Cat(h)

strange little creatures?
 

wrote:

Arrrgh; thats them. You will never guess what their favourite plants
to eat are?
You guessed it, Primulas (at least I think it's Primulas; and maybe
Fuschias; can't remember).

Well, last year I got totally eaten out of Heucheras - a sad sad affair
beleive you me :o(

strange little creatures?
 

La Puce wrote:
wrote:

Arrrgh; thats them. You will never guess what their favourite plants
to eat are?
You guessed it, Primulas (at least I think it's Primulas; and maybe
Fuschias; can't remember).

Well, last year I got totally eaten out of Heucheras - a sad sad affair
beleive you me :o(

Eaten out of Heucheras?
Despicable!!!

Des

strange little creatures?
 

wrote:
La Puce wrote:
wrote:

Arrrgh; thats them. You will never guess what their favourite plants
to eat are?
You guessed it, Primulas (at least I think it's Primulas; and maybe
Fuschias; can't remember).

Well, last year I got totally eaten out of Heucheras - a sad sad affair
beleive you me :o(

Eaten out of Heucheras?
Despicable!!!


Right up there with being deprived of primulae, robbed of herb robert,
and burgled of brugmansia.
Say, folks, what happens when it comes to light that you have Vine
Weevils in your garden? Do other gardeners cross the road to avoid
you?

Cat(h)

strange little creatures?
 

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message .com
from "Cat(h)" contains these words:


Say, folks, what happens when it comes to light that you have Vine
Weevils in your garden? Do other gardeners cross the road to avoid
you?

It's like this.. you spot some desirable plant in their weeviless
plot, and try to arrange a swap, offering in exchange, a pot of the
very rare primula you grew from seed you collected in the Himalaya. The
other gardener stares somewhere past your shoulder and mumbles "I've
just remembered I left the baby alone by the pond..got to
rush..byeeeee".


I crushed one more of those nasty beasties (no, not a child-abusing
gardener, a VW) on my way out the door this morning. The awful thing
had come into my porch.
Anyway, it got me thinking.
I would like to use nematodes to treat this infestation, rather than
chemicals. I will worry about sourcing those over teh week end as I
have no time to do that till then - I hope they are available in garden
centres, though I am not sure.
But what about quantities and application? Do I need to treat the
entire garden, or just the pots in front of the house, where I have
seen them?
What rate of application?
I'm being a little lazy here, as I do not have time to research that
till the week end, so input from you and other garden experts would be
hugely helpful.

Many thanks in advance!
Cat(h)
Janet

strange little creatures?
 

Cat(h) wrote:
I crushed one more of those nasty beasties (no, not a child-abusing
gardener, a VW) on my way out the door this morning. The awful thing
had come into my porch.
Anyway, it got me thinking.
I would like to use nematodes to treat this infestation, rather than
chemicals. I will worry about sourcing those over teh week end as I
have no time to do that till then - I hope they are available in garden
centres, though I am not sure.
But what about quantities and application? Do I need to treat the
entire garden, or just the pots in front of the house, where I have
seen them?
What rate of application?
I'm being a little lazy here, as I do not have time to research that
till the week end, so input from you and other garden experts would be
hugely helpful.

Got mine here .... and it tells you everything you need to know :o)

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalo...p?cPath=61_183

strange little creatures?
 

La Puce wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
I crushed one more of those nasty beasties (no, not a child-abusing
gardener, a VW) on my way out the door this morning. The awful thing
had come into my porch.
Anyway, it got me thinking.
I would like to use nematodes to treat this infestation, rather than
chemicals. I will worry about sourcing those over teh week end as I
have no time to do that till then - I hope they are available in garden
centres, though I am not sure.
But what about quantities and application? Do I need to treat the
entire garden, or just the pots in front of the house, where I have
seen them?
What rate of application?
I'm being a little lazy here, as I do not have time to research that
till the week end, so input from you and other garden experts would be
hugely helpful.

Got mine here .... and it tells you everything you need to know :o)

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalo...p?cPath=61_183

Thanks for that, La Puce, I'll see if I can find a source in Ireland.

Cat(h)