As I waded through bright-leaved hydrangeas that were taller than I was, I came face to face with a plant covered in leaves notched with half-moon chew marks.
I dove in, inspecting the foliage for clues about who had caused the damage.
Aha! A dead beetle rolled off a leaf as I rustled through, and landed on the ground. I took a photo and moved on, convinced this was a random attack by a now dead beetle, and I didn’t have to worry about a pest outbreak in the hydrangeas.
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Later though, while doing some research, I realized I’d been tricked by that beetle. It was playing dead.
Armed with some knowledge about this strange creature, I removed the pot from the plant and scouted the soil, finding pockets of round white eggs around the roots.
Thanks to that adult beetle’s obvious feeding damage, I’d unearthed an emerging root weevil problem.
Causing both minor cosmetic and more severe damage to a wide range of hosts, root weevils are common – and if you know what you are looking for, they are easy to identify.
So read on to find out how to identify these insects, and discover the control options available to you!
Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
What Are Root Weevils?Also known as snout beetles, thanks to their long elephant trunk-like “noses,” root weevils are part of the Curculionidae family in the beetle order Coleoptera.
Both the adults and the larvae may damage a wide variety of hosts, from evergreens to deciduous and herbaceous plants, and food crops as well.
The adults chew ragged D-shaped notches out of the leaf edges, and the larvae feed on the roots.
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