Vine weevil beetles, how to kill.

Evening all.
I found some grubs ( vine weevil) in a pot of dahlias, promptly disposed of. Checked other pots but nothing as yet was found.

Now, I have the adults munching on the lovely green leaves, and last night picked one and squished it.

Obviously, there are more, but other than going out at night with a torch, is there anything that will kill the adults? I've provado'd the leaves, ( but the drench with the stuff you mix up is only for the grubs. )

buggers are having a field day!

 

Personally I'd try to avoid pesticides if possible. Not so much for the usual eco or political reasons, but because last time I used some I made the problem worse. I unwittingly wiped out all the good insects too (well not all of them, but the ones that were inadvertantly on the receiving end of my sprayer). Predators now deceased or evacuated, the pests came back.

Granted that was a different pest to what you're fighting. I was tackling an aphid strike. Not sure if the same principle applies with vine weevil, but once bitten twice shy and all that.

 

Manually killing all the adult beetles you can find would be a good start to alleviating the problem. Trouble is they are shy, nocturnal and dusty coloured so not easy to find - shame they are not a nice bright scarlet like certain other menaces. I've heard it suggested to put traps (e.g. a toilet roll stuffed with grass ) in key areas, then empty them out during the day. Never actually got round to doing this myself, mind.