Our houseplant horror!

Ruth deals with an indoor outbreak of vine weevils

- Ruth Hayes

SOMETHING is afoot in the lounge, and I don’t like it. In recent weeks we have found three adult vine weevils stalking the room, which has been unnerving, to say the least.

They were swiftly evicted, but the question is ‘where did they come from?’

I suspect they overwintered as creamy, brown-headed grubs in the compost of one of the room’s many houseplants and my money was on either a weeping fig that has been slightly droopy and sad for some time or new white jasmine salvaged from a garden center ‘TLC bin’.

While the grubs eat the roots of plants, the large brown adults with their slightly drooping snouts bite notches on the edge of leaves, though I haven’t seen any evidence of their feasting indoors.

Pests are common on houseplants after winter when they seek sanctuary indoors, so it is always worth checking and treating before they multiply.