Runner/dwarf beans

[colin(bridgend)]

Hi - I have only just come across this forum and would like some help. I have recently converted a flower bed which had daffodils and a shrub into a vegetable plot. I have planted both runner and dwarf beans in the plot and they are being eaten in the root by a small yellow caterpiller type grub (approx, 5mm. in length). They are eating through the root and forming small pinholes in the main root shoot. Could anyone tell me what these little creatures are and how to cure my problem before I loose all my beans. Many thanks in anticipation.

[Shortie]

Hi Colin, how rotten for you! It sounds like you might have Vine Weevil...

Take a peek at the below... I've seen a few in containers when I've taken old plants, and though they haven't seemed to cause problems for me yet I know they can be a pain. I squash any I find. They look like little maggots with reddy-brown faces.

http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/...ine/index.html

[JennieAtkinson]

Aren't vine weevil grubs white?

I had loads (cream/white grubs) when I dug out my veg area. But used a vine weevil nematode and haven't had any this last year. Never had any in containers though.

[colin(bridgend)]

runner/dwarf beans

Thanks for your replies however the little so and sos are definately yellow in colour and are quite small in both length and size regarding diameter. Looking at the vine weavil it does not resemble those grubs.

[colin(bridgend)]

runner/dwarf beans

Having read up on the grub my wife thinks it is a grub from the bean sead fly and to cure the problem the ground should be treated with Chlorophos but our friends in the EU have decided that this product has now been taken off the market. Is there any alternative available - preferably organic. Those EU bureaucrats have a lot to answer for.

[Lesley Jay]

Colin I thought bean seed fly caterpillars were white. Have you looked at cutworms or wireworms? Take a look at www.greengardener.co.uk for something to kill them off.