Vine weevil larvae !!!!!!

Vine weevils are not usually found on grass roots. Did you take a photo of the offenders?

 

I'll have a dig shortly and take a picture. When I bought the house about 10 years ago the garden was all flowers and bushes. I'm digging up lots of roots and using a sive ( I can't spell lol ) to get the roots out

 

Lots and lots of these little things I've found

 

My understanding is that with certain chemicals, as long as you do not harvest too soon after spraying (as per instructions on the container), it is safe to use on pests.

 

They are evil little xxxxx , and would not like to grow anything with them around.

Nematodes do seem to be the answer but is it warm enough for them to be supplied /used; thought they needed a certain temperature to be viable ?

There is Bug Clear and Provado Vine Weevil Killer which you can drench the soil with, but you will then have to grow your crops in pots or growbags for a year.

Either way the boarder soil has to be replaced every couple of years as it becomes exhausted and all manner of diseases build up, so my view would be to seal it with concrete or paving slabs after using some Bug Clear or Jayes and stick with easy to manage large pots and growbags whos compost is renewed each year.

 

To be honest, that does not look like a Vine weevil grub to me. It is the wrong colour and the head is not really as orange as theirs. Would like to see a closer shot of it, but it looks more like one of the chafer grubs. Just as hard to get rid of, but Vine weevil nematodes would not work on them.

 

What I've got Palustris is the little buggers on the left the ones with the little arms/legs they look disgusting!!!

 

Thought as much when you said the roots were grass. Chafer bugs are pests of grass.
A bit easier to deal with in that once you have dug over the soil and removed their food source the adults will go looking for other places to lay their eggs. No grass=no chafers.

 

What I do with my troughs now, is to put a ring of ant powder around them. Kills the adults intent on climbing up the troughs to lay their eggs. No adults = eventually no vine weevil grubs. (Hopefully)

 

Will the ant power work?

 

It seemed to last year so I'm going to do it again this year.

 

Maybe worth a go.

Where do thengrubs mainly live? I've had them in my containers but I've never seen them in the ground. They love eTing my hedge leafs but dam it looks bad.

Worse each year

 

Grubs prefer peaty soil; don't like gritty soil.

They live in the ground as well but don't seem to cause permanent damage to plants. In a trough they completely DECIMATE plants as I have found out. They're the only animal I have declared outright war on. Genocide on Vine Weevils is the only way to go.

They seemed to be unknown years ago. I suspect they crept in via Garden Centres in peat-based compost.