Help me bash the bugs!

[frog]

This spring I spent almost a whole day stuffing my front border with bulbs and tubers so the once quite boring stretch would be a mass of flowers all through summer and into autumn.

By last week, nothing had come up except one arum lily so I've had a little ferret about in the ground.

All I kept finding was the outer shell of each bulb or tuber all hollowed out and full of bugs and grubs :cry: They have eaten the lot, about £50 worth :hissyfit:

We never used to have a bug problem there but over winter DH topped up the border with soil from somewhere else so I imagine that's where the buggers have come from :yeahright:

My FIL reckons the best plan of attack is to leave the border unplanted and at the start of winter douse the whole lot with a Jeyes fluid solution. I really don't like the sound of that mainly because of the birds but I really don't see I have much choice but to resort to some sort of chemical attack :sigh:

Any ideas on the best approach to this? :-(

[Damsella]

Can you not buy something more specialised at a garden centre?

Maybe dig a load of the earth out, bin it, treat what's left then put in some proper new earth that you have bought?

[frog]

Maybe dig a load of the earth out, bin it, treat what's left then put in some proper new earth that you have bought?I'd thought of that but wasn't sure if it would work, do these things stay fairly near the surface then, they don't burrow all the way down? :huh: I'd rather a few hours of hard work and digging than chemicals if I can get away with it...

[choccy eating monster]

Could be Vine Weevil. Its not the adults that do the damage, but the creamy coloured grubs, who eat roots and tubers. You don't normally see the signs before its too late.

Either:

Turn the soil daily or every other day - this exposes the grubs to birds who love to eat them!

or

Order some nematode worms from the internet - do a search - and you put them in your watering can and water them in. The effects only last 6 months, but they are environmentally friendly and v. effective.

Vine weevils are now very strong, and the standard garden centre sprays are virtually useless. Years ago, you could buy excellent products from garden centre (which did work) but they have since been banned. I don't know why - they were extremely effective, but stank!

[frog]

Thanks cem :smile: The things I found sound like your description of vine weevils :hissyfit: I could thump DH for putting that soil on there, we're acquired red spider mites as well which we have NEVER had :no:

I'll try the turning the soil thing, there are plenty of birds about to feast on the little blighters :bwahaha: