Vine Weevil.

Another picture from Oban.

All readings are taken from a sheltered location.

Low Temp: 7C
High Temp: 14C

Rain In Past 24 Hours: 0.6mm

Strongest Gust of wind in 24 hours: 4.8 metres per second.
Weather Today: Breezy with some light rain, quite mild this afternoon.

Hi everyone, how are you all today?

Tonight I’m going to show you an ugly little blighter that I found by accident lurking in one of my plants. Some of you may already have seen him for yourself on your own plants, others may have had plants with roots that look like those in the picture and wondered what the heck happened here.

Can you see the Vine Weevil, the white grub at the end of the dibber? There were several more in the compost this plant came out of. As you will see they've just about eaten all the roots of this plant and it will be lucky to survive, for more info click the link http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/vineweevil.asp

Well I’ll tell you what it was, its the darn Vine Weevil that happened here. If your plant has got to this stage as in the picture and is of little value to you then you would probably be better off just destroying it. If you’re like me though and hate to throw plants away then you must get rid of the compost the plant came out of and don’t just replanting in fresh compost because first you have to make sure there are no more Vine Weevil hiding in what’s left of the roots, you can be more or less sure that there are. With this plant it wasn’t hard to remove the rest of the compost. Usually I remove as much as I can and then wash the rest off with water making sure to remove every last bit of compost as they can hide in the smallest bit. Once this is done and you’re sure its clear of any more pests you can re-pot the plant in a new pot with fresh compost. With this particular plant I removed some of the bottom leaves and re-potted it deeper than it should have been as I think there is a chance it might put out new roots from the stems, only time will tell. As a plant its not really worth a lot but its got flower buds on so I felt it worth giving it a chance.

Bob.