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Home , Vine weevil

Black Vine Weevil or Weevil

Order: Coleoptera Family: Genus/Species: sulcatus

Description: Adults are 9 to 13 mm (about ¼”) long, black to dark brown with white or gold flecks on elytra (hardened forewing). They have short snouts with chewing mandibles on the end. All adults are female, and are unable to fly. Larvae are off-white with a brown head capsule, and are up to 12.5 mm long, c-shaped and legless.

Habitat: Larvae are subterranean, found under the host plants. Adults hide in the soil or leaf litter during the day, and feed on plants at night.

Life Cycle: Complete metamorphosis, one generation per year. Eggs are laid on the soil surface or on leaf litter, and are less than 1mm in diameter. Larvae hatch and burrow into the soil to feed on roots of many plants. Most of the population over winters as larvae, emerging from the soil in May or June. A small percentage over winter as adults, and can be found feeding on leaves in early spring.

Economic Importance & Management: The Black Vine Weevil is a pest of more than 200 plants, ranging form weeds to trees. Preferred targets are yews, , conifers, primroses, and many others. They are a threat in nursery stock, attacking both the roots, thus slowing growth, and foliage, doing esthetic damage. They damage berry and grape crops as well. Cultivation of the soil in April-May can eliminate larvae before planting. Hand picks adults when found. Use of sticky tapes around trunks of plants may help. Beneficial nematodes have shown some effectiveness in controlling larvae. See PNW Control Handbook for chemical controls.

References: PNW Insect Handbook (special supplement Root weevils/containers) Garden , Whitney Cranshaw OSU PNW Nursery IMP, Robin Rosetta http://www.ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2069.html http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/blackvw.html http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/pubs/pdgs/fs667.pdf Photo, WSU (left), Penn State (right)

11/2009 Black Vine Weevil or Taxus Weevil NWREC Curation Group Information Sheets