Is this a friend or foe

[longpod]

I have found a white slug type insect with brown tip curled up in the soil, opened up it would be about an inch long, not slimy like a slug, can anyone recognise my description, as I cannot find a photograph of it, is this a friend or foe, and what is it please. longpod

[Chantal]

Is this the little horror?



I sincerely hope not because it it is, you've got Vine Weevils. FOE

[Johnboy]

Hi Chantal,
My thoughts went to Vine Weevil immediately.
In France they have been there for centuries and somehow they do not seem to cause the infestations that we get in UK. Still an awful pest though.
Hi Longpod,
Super part of the world where you are. I lived for a year at Trebas not that far from you as my year out from Univ more than thirty years ago.
I am due to sell up here and have a notion that I will end up in Tarn somewhere.
I used to go to the evening concerts that they held in the Cathedral. Do they still hold them?
JB.

[Jenny Green]

Or this?
A cutworm?
No, I can see you said it's white. Probably vine weevil then. Are these really a problem in the soil outdoors? I thought they were only a problem in pots.

[sally wright]

Dear Longpod,
try looking for chafer grub pictures. They usually inhabit grassland but will go for other things and places if they have to.
Regards Sally Wright.

[Monika]

Last year, after planting out some herbs from pots, I found quite a few vine weevil grubs in the allotment soil around them but found no trace of them during this autumn's digging or, indeed, any damage on plants during the summer. So maybe, as Organic Freak says, they are only a problem in pots?!

[Johnboy]

Hi Jenny,
Certainly in Nurseries Vine Weevil are a manace in potted stock and I think you are very correct in believing that they do not pose such a threat in open ground.
Having said that a friend of mine wondered why his Rhubarb was looking awfully sick and he sort of touched the plant and it didn't have a root on it.
When he lifted it clear he exposed literally a hundred or so Vine Weevil. Now that is the only example of this kind that I know of.
You are aware of the problems I had in the Nursery some years back and the infestation on the nursery next door was horrific. There they had even got into the hedgerows and ground but even then they didn't seem to harm the hedgerow atall. It cost megabucks to clear that ground but even today I still get the sporadic outbreaks which are quite easily resolved.
Although my vegetables are grown in land adjoining the nursery I have never had a problem with with VW.
They are an awful pest but I feel that they really are not that much to worry about in open ground.
JB.
PS Please change back to being Just You as I refuse to look upon you as a freak!

[Jenny Green]

I quite like being a freak, JB, sorry! (I lead quite a boring life, you see.)
I think maybe there are vine weevil predators in the open ground that the vine weevils are protected from in pots.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Jenny 'the organic freak' Green, i think you could have a very valid point about natural preditors keeping vine weevils under control in open ground.
Funny how nature lends us a helping hand sometimes, don't you think.
Bet your lifes not really boring.

[Johnboy]

Hi Jenny,
So Freak it will be. I think that you could well be very right in what you say. I was quoting the exception rather than the rule with the Rhubarb.
In my vegetable patch I cannot recall anything that could remotely be put down to Vine Weevil even when the nursery stock a few feet away took a real hammering.
Sincerely,
JB.

[Organic Dave]

Looks like you've discovered a chafer grub larvae. The only other possibility is the larvae of the vine weevil, but these are not nearly as big or as long as the specimen you've found. Don't panic however, as both can be easily controlled with biological pest control nematodes, available from the best horticultural mail order companies. Nemasys H controls the vine weevil larvae, and Chafer Grub Killer does exactly as you'd expect! Look to apply the vine weevil larvae killer in March or September to November (you can use it anytime between these dates but you'll disrupt the life cycle the most by sticking to early/late dates. The Chafer Grub Killer has a smaller application window - August and early September. Good luck!

[Mike Vogel]

Pardon my ignorance, Jenny, but your picture looks very much like a leatherjacket, the larva of the daddy-long-legs [crane fly to the cognoscenti].

mike

[vivie veg]

My rule of thumb is that if it looks vaguely like a caterpillar, i.e. small head and long squiggy body then it probably eats LOTS of vegetative matter (leaves or roots) and will get thrown to the ducks or chickens. I may be wrong, but preditors tend to be more active and will have longer legs.

I NEVER give the ducks and chickens 'convict' caterpillars though...these have yellow and black stripped bodies, as these accumulate the poison from it's host plant and so will be very toxic for the birds.

[Belinda]

Hi Vivie Veg,

Your 'convict caterpillars' sound vey much like those of the cinnabar moth - http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/natur ... sp?pic=127

[alan refail]

On the whole, if chickens won't like it, they don't eat it. Mine won't touch cabbage white caterpillars, though they are too fond of the cabbages