What is Vine Weevil?

Vine Weevil is one of the most common and widespread garden and horticultural problems. Vine Weevils are approximately 9mm in size and are a brown/dull black in colour, with dark yellow marks on their wing cases. They attack a broad range of indoor and outdoor plants; however, they are most damaging to container and pot grown plants, especially herbaceous plants such as Hydrangeas and Rhododendrons.

Whilst adult vine weevils cause damage by eating plant leaves during the warmer months, the grubs can cause twice as much damage by eating the plant roots during the autumn and winter. Grub damage will unfortunately often cause effected plants to wilt and die.

Symptoms:

  • Adult vine weevils may be visible on the leaves of the plant during the summer months.
  • Irregular notches in the leaves during the summer.
  • Wilting and dieback.
  • White grubs with brown heads visible in the plant roots.

We recommend using a biopesticide such as Nemasys L. This product contains parasitic Steinernema kraussei nematodes which will control black vine weevil at the larvae stage. The nematode will seek out the vine weevil and infect them with a bacteria which will then stop them from feeding.