It was back in 2022, last year, when I planted three tuberous begonias, the 'Parisienne' trailing variety. They were so beautiful, creamy yellow and pink flowers on a single plant. However, the dratted vine weevils got to them and I did not pick up on the telltale signs (damage to edge of leaves) until it was too late. It was only after I dried off the tubers when cold weather arrived that I saw the damage. I was lucky in that the plants gave such a glorious display of flowers.
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| 'Parisienne' trailing tuberous begonia September 2022 |
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'Parisienne' trailing tuberous begonia
showing Vine Weevil damage to leaves September 2022
The tubers, particularly the large one, however, was riddled with holes created by the vine weevil larvae which had sneakily embedded themselves unseen into the tubers. The whole of the compost in the pots was writhing with them. I removed all the vine weevils from the tubers (I plunged the tubers into water and kept them there a day or so until the vine weevils came out) and stored them but they are not doing so well this year. Not yet.
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| 'Parisienne' trailing tuberous begonias June, 2023 |
This year, mindful of all pollinating insects (including bees and harmless hoverflies) I am going to try Nemasys (external link), a safe product (except for vine weevil larvae) by which you treat the soil with nematodes which, in turn, dine on vine weevil larvae.
Vine Weevil larvae Vine Weevil pupa
