Weevils

I see there hasn't been much response to Karen's questions on the rose weevils. I also have a couple of annoying weevils in my garden. The hollyhock weevil makes a mess of my hollyhocks & and another type infests any of the fuzzy leaved verbascums I grow. I was looking forward to a couple of huge verbascum olymicums that will be blooming soon. Now I see it's covered with weevils as the buds are starting to form.

With a bit of web searching I see that the mullein weevil is probably an introduced pest - brought in by our government to control mullein. That's just great - eh? Now what? There isn't a lot of info on the web about controling weevils - except for the boll weevil. I usually trot out with a pail of soapy water and pick off as many as I can. I just can't seem to keep up with them. Any other suggestions out there? I'm starting to think my only solution is to NOT grow hollyhocks or verbascums - which stinks because both are favorites.

Poppysue, i go out in the evenings and early morning with a little quart spray bottle with pyrethrum in it. I spritz it on the weevils and it helps. I still have a few, but my hollyhocks are blooming and so did my verbascum.

I think I've got hollyhock weevils also. I've been spraying with soapy water, and they will finally die around the time my fingers are tired of pumping. What is pyrethrum? And does insecticide dust work on the little buggers? I'm tired of spraying, and spraying . . .

I have resorted to using Raid flying insect spray. It comes in the blue can and the active ingrediant is pyrethrum. It's not a garden spray but a household spray. Anyhoo... just a very light mist directly on the weevils will kill them dead. I'm sure there's prolly a spray better product suited for gardens but I've had good luck with this stuff.

Thanks, poppysue.

This year I finally gave up and dug out all my hollyhocks. Between the leaf skeletonizers and the weevils, it was too frustrating. Both the leaves and the flowers were a mess. I don't use any poisons, and I got tired of squishing bugs. Planted Joe Pye weed where some of them were, and foxglove in the other bed. Now we'll see what eats them . . . .

I just sorted lots of hollyhock seeds and was surprised to find a few of these hollyhock weevils in the seed pods! I've never seen them before. They looked like miniature ant eaters to me! Anyway - I read on the net that they lay their eggs in the seed pods and and the larve eats the seeds, etc. The seeds I collected looked fine and there were not many of these little bugs. Does anyone think they spread disease to the seeds that would then create problems for the seeds?

I think weevils get into my hibiscus seedpods. I'm sure I sent out many surprises in my early seed collecting days. Now I just gather the hibiscus and rose of sharon seeds and stick in the freezer for a few days. Hope this gets them.