Black vine weevil on strawberry
Strawberry is one of the few crops where heavy grub populations build up in open ground as well as in containers, and plants in pots, troughs and grow bags are the most at risk. Grubs eat the roots, so plants wilt and die or lift out of the soil with almost nothing below. Adults notch the leaves at night. Apply nematodes in late summer, while the young grubs are small and the compost is still warm.
At a glance
- Damage
- Notched leaf edges above, C-shaped grubs eating the roots below
- Type
- Root
- Settings
- Garden, Indoors, Under glass
- Threshold
- No published garden threshold; plants that wilt or pull up easily with the roots eaten
- Release
- Heterorhabditis bacteriophora
- Rate
- 250k–500k /m² of bed or growing medium (Koppert's Larvanem rate)
How to confirm it
Tip a wilting plant out of its pot. Vine weevil grubs are plump, white, legless and C-shaped with a light brown head, about 3/8–5/8 inch (10–15 mm) long when full grown, curled among the roots. Adults are dull black snout beetles 3/8–1/2 inch (9–13 mm) long that cannot fly and cut half-moon notches in leaf edges at night.
Identification, lifecycle, degree days and every control option are on the full Black vine weevil profile. Not sure it is this pest? Answer four questions about the damage.
Work it out
How many do I need?
Carries Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and strawberry through so nothing is re-entered. Open the calculator →