Vine weevil is a beetle that attacks a wide range of plants, both indoors and outdoors, but is especially damaging to plants grown in containers.
It is one of the most widespread, common and devastating garden pests. The adult weevils eat plant leaves during spring and summer, but it is the grubs that cause the most damage over autumn and winter when they feed on plant roots. This damage often results in wilting and plant death.
Plants growing in pots and containers, outdoors or under cover, are most likely to be severely damaged by vine weevil grubs. Plants growing in the open ground are less likely to be damaged, although heavy infestations of grubs can occur on strawberries, Primula, polyanthus, Sedum, Heuchera and young yew plants.
The adult beetles feed on the foliage of many herbaceous plants and shrubs, especially Rhododendron, evergreen Euonymus, Hydrangea, Epimedium, Bergenia, Primula and strawberry. Adults rarely cause enough damage to affect the vigour of plants.
There are several other species of weevil closely related to vine weevil, the adults of which cause similar damage but are usually less problematic as larvae.
