Any gardeners here ? black beetles

VTech
VTech Posts: 4,736
edited June 2013 in The cake stop
I cut down one of the side gardens today with a rotovator, the weeds were around 2ft high and covering around 2/3rd of an acre.
Once I had cut down the main foliage I noticed loads of black beetles, around half inch long in the garden, they were all over the place. Are these dangerous or a problem I need to sort ?
Living MY dream.

Comments

  • fossyant
    fossyant Posts: 2,549
    Google Vine Beetles.

    If you've got these, they can ruin new plants and existing ones.
  • simonhead
    simonhead Posts: 1,399
    If its the common black beetle they are no real problem, can actually be quite good for the garden as the will eat slugs other pests.
    Life isnt like a box of chocolates, its like a bag of pic n mix.
  • seanoconn
    seanoconn Posts: 11,318
    If its these...http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OSkC2Pjj-pE

    You may have a problem
    Pinno, מלך אידיוט וחרא מכונאי
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    I dont think they are vine beetles as these ones are jet black and shiny.
    After the moving the birds were round like flies round shiatsu.
    Living MY dream.
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,424
    VTech wrote:
    I cut down one of the side gardens today with a rotovator, the weeds were around 2ft high and covering around 2/3rd of an acre.
    Once I had cut down the main foliage I noticed loads of black beetles, around half inch long in the garden, they were all over the place. Are these dangerous or a problem I need to sort ?

    They weren't a problem until you destroyed their habitat, now they will have to go somewhere else :D

    300 species of common ground beetles alone in UK, so identification could be a problem.

    but well done for upsetting so many so easily, you must have a natural ability I suppose :wink:
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • random man
    random man Posts: 1,518
    VTech wrote:
    I cut down one of the side gardens today with a rotovator, the weeds were around 2ft high and covering around 2/3rd of an acre.
    Once I had cut down the main foliage I noticed loads of black beetles, around half inch long in the garden, they were all over the place. Are these dangerous or a problem I need to sort ?

    In a garden that big a few beetles won't be a problem. But if you'd come across a herd of wildebeest in all that vegetation, you may have had an issue :wink:
  • rhext
    rhext Posts: 1,639
    Surprised you don't leave that kind of stuff to your peasants to worry about!
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    rhext wrote:
    Surprised you don't leave that kind of stuff to your peasants to worry about!

    Normally I would but ive got them working on the new swimming pool block.
    Living MY dream.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    In all probability some kind of ground beetle. Hundreds of them to choose from, invariably the gardener's friend since they eat smaller insects and molluscs.

    You'd be very unlikely to spot vine weevil adults, they are very well camouflaged and move slowly or play dead. I should know, I spent the best part of 10 years working with the little b@stards.
  • keef66 wrote:
    In all probability some kind of ground beetle. Hundreds of them to choose from, invariably the gardener's friend since they eat smaller insects and molluscs.

    You'd be very unlikely to spot vine weevil adults, they are very well camouflaged and move slowly or play dead. I should know, I spent the best part of 10 years working with the little b@stards.

    Vine weevils are brownish and pure evil - catch them at night when they are active - hold an umbrella under the plant and shake the plant they play dead fall in and you can kill them at your leisure. This stuff also is supposed to work

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Armillatox-So ... vi-content

    They can't advertise it as an insecticide but inside the bottle wrapping there is a leaflet which tells you how to dilute it and use it as a root drench and its supposed to kill the weevil eggs.
  • keef66 wrote:
    In all probability some kind of ground beetle. Hundreds of them to choose from, invariably the gardener's friend since they eat smaller insects and molluscs.

    You'd be very unlikely to spot vine weevil adults, they are very well camouflaged and move slowly or play dead. I should know, I spent the best part of 10 years working with the little b@stards.

    Vine weevils are brownish and pure evil - catch them at night when they are active - hold an umbrella under the plant and shake the plant they play dead fall in and you can kill them at your leisure. This stuff also is supposed to work

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Armillatox-So ... vi-content

    They can't advertise it as an insecticide but inside the bottle wrapping there is a leaflet (or here http://www.armillatox.com/) which tells you how to dilute it and use it as a root drench and its supposed to kill the weevil eggs.
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 51,196
    If you played chess, you would understand the Beatles. If you understood the Beatles, you would play chess.

    Wots u need is some Rhubarb leaves. Chop them up and put them in a bucket with water with a lid on it. Stir occasionally for a week to ten days. It stinks. It is foul. It is the most putrid substance known in the universe (especially in warm weather). Draw off the liquid. Put the liquid into an old Windowlene bottle or similar and spray it liberally. Greenfly, aphids and beatles hate it. it won't kill them but it will send them away.

    They all have a place in the whole scheme of things so do not use insecticide.

    Beatles 1 - Vtech 0. That'll teach ya for digging holes everywhere.
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,434
    let me be the first to say that i, for one, welcome our new coleopteran overlords
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    I've got cockchafers
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • goonz
    goonz Posts: 3,106
    2/3 of an acre????

    I presume thats just your side alleyway area right?
    Scott Speedster S20 Roadie for Speed
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  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    goonz wrote:
    2/3 of an acre????

    I presume thats just your side alleyway area right?

    its more like a veranda area. I let the dog stroll this part of the garden.
    Living MY dream.
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    Seeing as we have a gardening thread going, how about a bit of topiary;

    Before;



    and after;



    By the way, I think your beetles are harmless - we have have loads like that here.
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    If thats your bush, its nicely trimmed.
    Living MY dream.
  • ballysmate
    ballysmate Posts: 15,921
    VTech wrote:
    If thats your bush, its nicely trimmed.

    Is that your best pick up line?
  • VTech
    VTech Posts: 4,736
    Im getting old :)
    Living MY dream.
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    Ballysmate wrote:
    VTech wrote:
    If thats your bush, its nicely trimmed.

    Is that your best pick up line?

    Ouch! Walked right into that one!
  • Ballysmate wrote:
    VTech wrote:
    If thats your bush, its nicely trimmed.

    Is that your best pick up line?

    If she had a bush like that I'd give it a wide berth...ya don't know what would be in there
  • seanoconn
    seanoconn Posts: 11,318
    I prefer a more drastic approach to topiary

    274BBC7E-2D4D-436A-B060-6873E875CB5F-2807-00000558A65CAD4C_zps103bf617.jpg
    Pinno, מלך אידיוט וחרא מכונאי