On 18/11/07 11:31, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Sacha
says...
We use mainly yellow pellets and they would be hard to mistake for white.
Next time you go to a gc or nursery, either look for some on sale or ask the
nurseryman to show them to you. But as Charlie says, they're scattered
throughout the compost, eggs are in clumps. You just have to imagine the
insect sitting in one spot while it lays its eggs. It's not going to move
about through the soil scattering eggs as it goes. Your query is by no
means unusual BTW. I should say urg receives two or three questions about
this every year.
But the distribution of the pellets should be a helpful clue. When we make
up a compost mix here, it's like making a cake on a giant scale! The bag of
compost is emptied onto a potting bench, a bit to one side. Pellets are
scattered on top and then the whole thing is turned over and over to the
other side and then back again.


Last week while wandering through a local GC a lovely little shrub
caught my eye - it had shed all its leaves and it just had sweet
smelling pink blossom, so I bought it - a Viburnum bodnantense "Charles
Lamont". On removing it from the pot, the bottom centre of the rootball
had a large clump of around 40 creamy/yellow coloured "beads", which
penetrated partly into the rootball, so I removed (squashed) all those.
As it was a clump they must have been eggs.

Nice plant. It is now in a big tub next to the front door.

Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

In article , Sacha
says...
Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2


The eggs were too big to be vine weevil. They were around 1/4" diameter.
Based on the size of the clump they must have been laid by quite a big
slug.
--
David in Normandy

On 18/11/07 12:12, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Sacha
says...
Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2


The eggs were too big to be vine weevil. They were around 1/4" diameter.
Based on the size of the clump they must have been laid by quite a big
slug.

You've still done yourself a favour, then. I've never seen vine weevil eggs
myself. But in planting daffs the other day, I moved a stone and there was
a huge slug underneath - one of those with an orange bit on it. It is now
an ex-slug.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'