I volunteered to repay a glass of squash at a friend's house by seeking
answers to two questions :-)

1. Her Phygelius flowerheads and upper leaves have apparently been
virtually completely destroyed by the larvae of a weevil. The adult
weevil is quite large, c. 8mm in diameter, very rotund (it's almost
round when curled up in defensive position), dark brown/black speckled
cream in colour. It is very reminiscent of a bird dropping when seen on
the bush.

The damage is similar to that done by lily beetle larvae, areas of
tissue rendered dead and transparent, or entire leaves and flowers
devoured/shrivelled. The larvae look like, well, beetle larvae of the
slimy variety (as opposed to those . They pupate in cases similar in
size to those of gooseberry sawfly, but of a different texture (well,
they're not silk, are they? :-) and a slightly darker brown, on the
plant near the damages areas.

Now that I notice, there are weevils doing precisely the same thing to
my brassicas. Little swine... I mean weevils.


2. She'd like to know where to buy a real, functioning pump for a real,
functioning well. Don't know whether electric or manual is most
desirable (I have fond memories of having to find the water to prime
manual pumps in my yoof); can anyone suggest a good make?

regards
sarah

--
Waist deep, neck deep
We'll be drowning before too long
We're neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the damned fools keep yelling to push on

Hi,

I'm still working on a DIY hand pump. Progress is slow due to bad arthritis
(I can't carry a watering can) but we've had it working--on the bench. I
may have a simple design soon, or if you do a search on Google--there are a
few working hand pumps out there, and some just for show.

Howard


"sw" wrote in message
...

2. She'd like to know where to buy a real, functioning pump for a real,
functioning well. Don't know whether electric or manual is most
desirable (I have fond memories of having to find the water to prime
manual pumps in my yoof); can anyone suggest a good make?

regards
sarah
-----cut-----

"..... have apparently been virtually completely destroyed ...."

Well Which?

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"sw" wrote in message
...
I volunteered to repay a glass of squash at a friend's house by seeking
answers to two questions :-)
2. She'd like to know where to buy a real, functioning pump for a real,
functioning well. Don't know whether electric or manual is most
desirable (I have fond memories of having to find the water to prime
manual pumps in my yoof); can anyone suggest a good make?

We use pumps here, mostly electrical, for most rural houses which have
their own wells in general. They are commonplace here but maybe not so in
UK, one company is called Aquadare but I think they may have been taken
over and renamed, a google search would be useful?. if not email me.
--
Chris Thomas
West Cork
Ireland

I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit. She's also wondering whether pruning the
affected shoots well down the plant and offering them to her chickens
will be sufficient to control the thing.

They are in fact called the phygelius weevil or figwort weevil. Cutting off
the affected areas and giving the rest of the plant a blast with some
general garden bug spray should do the trick. I had a few on mine but
picking off and squashing the adults and spraying the plant got rid of them.
Can't comment on their palatability to chickens though

sw wrote:


2. She'd like to know where to buy a real, functioning pump for a real,
functioning well. Don't know whether electric or manual is most
desirable (I have fond memories of having to find the water to prime
manual pumps in my yoof); can anyone suggest a good make?

regards
sarah


Covered recently here.. search the archives for hand pump. Machine Mart
were mentioned but told one customer that they 'couldn't guarantee their
actual use' (Different from what is says in their catalogue) Various
websites were also given IIRC.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...m=bbmsb9%24190
%241%40mserv2.dl.ac.uk&rnum=9&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dpump%2Bgroup:uk.rec.gar
dening%2Bgroup:uk.rec.gardening%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D% 26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3
Duk.rec.gardening%26scoring%3Dd%26selm%

and similar..


//
Jim

Pickle wrote:


I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit. She's also wondering whether pruning the
affected shoots well down the plant and offering them to her chickens
will be sufficient to control the thing.

They are in fact called the phygelius weevil or figwort weevil. Cutting off
the affected areas and giving the rest of the plant a blast with some
general garden bug spray should do the trick. I had a few on mine but
picking off and squashing the adults and spraying the plant got rid of them.
Can't comment on their palatability to chickens though

Aha! Thanks; I'd looked through my insect books, but they seem fixated
on weevils that eat hazel.

regards
sarah


--
Waist deep, neck deep
We'll be drowning before too long
We're neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the damned fools keep yelling to push on

In article , sw
writes
Pickle wrote:


I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit. She's also wondering whether pruning the
affected shoots well down the plant and offering them to her chickens
will be sufficient to control the thing.

They are in fact called the phygelius weevil or figwort weevil. Cutting off
the affected areas and giving the rest of the plant a blast with some
general garden bug spray should do the trick. I had a few on mine but
picking off and squashing the adults and spraying the plant got rid of them.
Can't comment on their palatability to chickens though

Aha! Thanks; I'd looked through my insect books, but they seem fixated
on weevils that eat hazel.

You have the Collins guide, by Michael Chinery, right? ;-)
--
Kay Easton

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

Kay Easton wrote:

In article , sw
writes
Pickle wrote:


[-]

They are in fact called the phygelius weevil or figwort weevil. Cutting
off the affected areas and giving the rest of the plant a blast with
some general garden bug spray should do the trick. I had a few on mine
but picking off and squashing the adults and spraying the plant got rid
of them. Can't comment on their palatability to chickens though

Aha! Thanks; I'd looked through my insect books, but they seem fixated
on weevils that eat hazel.

You have the Collins guide, by Michael Chinery, right? ;-)

Yup. Clearly a hazel weevil fetishist!
Gibbon (author of the _Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern
Europe_) prefers moths :-)

regards
sarah


--
Waist deep, neck deep
We'll be drowning before too long
We're neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the damned fools keep yelling to push on

The message
from (sw) contains these words:


I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit.

Samantha?

Janet.

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 23:19:23 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from (sw) contains these words:


I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit.

Samantha?

Blair?
--
martin

martin wrote:

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 23:19:23 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from (sw) contains these words:


I realise I also forgot to ask the obvious question: can anyone suggest
the name of the likely culprit.

Samantha?

Blair?

welcome to cam.misc:-)

regards
sarah

Jim W wrote:

sw wrote:

2. She'd like to know where to buy a real, functioning pump for a real,
functioning well. Don't know whether electric or manual is most
desirable (I have fond memories of having to find the water to prime
manual pumps in my yoof); can anyone suggest a good make?

Covered recently here.. search the archives for hand pump. Machine Mart
were mentioned but told one customer that they 'couldn't guarantee their
actual use' (Different from what is says in their catalogue) Various
websites were also given IIRC.
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...m=bbmsb9%24190
%241%40mserv2.dl.ac.uk&rnum=9&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dpump%2Bgroup:uk.rec.gar
dening%2Bgroup:uk.rec.gardening%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D% 26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3
Duk.rec.gardening%26scoring%3Dd%26selm%

and similar..

Thank you -- and everyone else who replied!

regards
sarah


--
Waist deep, neck deep
We'll be drowning before too long
We're neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the damned fools keep yelling to push on