Vine Weevil

Be very afraid......

if you get this in your garden or in your houseplants!

The wingless Vine weevil has a voracious appetite and chews through leaves and stems, the tell tale sign being semi-circular notches in the leaves. To add insult to injury it lays it's yellowy eggs, 500 to 1,500 of them which hatch as cream coloured grubs in the soil and they feed on the plant root system - the roots, tubers and corms causing it to rapidly wilt and then die. They stay in the soil till they emerge as adults and then feed mostly at night.

I have had the misfortune to find this inside the house and am hoping it didn't get very far! What was interesting, that I noticed as I took this image, was it's feet which have pads for sticking to surfaces and also each toe has a claw with 2 hooks to make doubly sure it hangs on in there! These can be clearly seen in the photograph.

The grubs have to be destroyed and the soil chucked - that is taken off the premises! Nematodes can be watered in which seek out and kill them but it is a long haul.