Black Vine Weevil - Nursery IPM

**Black Vine Weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatu)**

Also known as taxus weevil
Larvae are white, legless, and C-shaped with a brown head
Adults are gray to black, flightless, 9-13mm in length, with a short snout and bent antennae, and wings covered in patches of short, golden hairs
Mature larvae are 10-15 mm in length and form pupal cells in the soil in early spring
During the day, they hide in the soil or in dark spots on the stems near dense foliage
Eggs are laid in the soil near the base of host plants, hatching in 10-14 days into small larvae that feed on roots until temperatures go down in the fall, when they move deeper into the soil to overwinter
One generation per year
Larvae feed on small roots at first, but move to the bark of large roots or the stem as they grow older
Infested container-grown plants may not show symptoms until planted in the ground
Adults cause notching of broadleaved evergreen foliage and other host plants
Host plants: 100+ species (Rhododendron spp., Taxus spp., Euonymus spp., Japanese holly, hemlock)

Natural predators: Entomopathogenic nematodes: (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, Steinernema kraussei)
Place wooden boards on top of mulch under host plants in early May, checking the underside of the board in the middle of the day for adults
Reduce plant stress
Crop rotation
Remove weeds from surrounding area
Sticky & pit-fall traps for adults

Contact insecticides:
- Pyrethroids [3]: –thrins, bifenthrin
Systemic insecticides:
- Neonicotinoids [4A]: imidacloprid
Considerations:
- First foliar application should be made three weeks after detection of first adult, and second application three weeks after that
- Will harm non-target species