Weevils are usually quite choosy about what they eat, and they are often named after their favorite foods. There are weevils to match almost every variety of plant parts – leaves, roots, stems, and so on.
Do you know that there are more than 60,000 weevil species worldwide? So before we answer the question, we need to know which weevil we are talking about.
The most common weevils include fruit and nuts, seed, and grain weevils. You might find most of these weevils in your garden or home at one point or the other.
So, what do different types of weevils eat? Continue reading to find out the answers.
What Do Fruit & Nut Weevils Eat?
Fruit and nut weevils are typically found in gardens, orchards, and crop fields. This type of beetle can be divided into two categories: plum curculio and acorn weevil.
Plum curculio feeds on food products like flowers, buds, petals, and trees that bear fruit, such as apples, peaches, pears, etc., and thus, causes significant damage to the gardens and orchards that bore such trees.
Acorn weevils consume acorn and hickory nuts as a stomach, but they do not eat these nuts directly – they devour the inside to feed their belly.
What Do Grain Weevils Eat?
Grain weevils are usually found in kitchens, pantries, or storehouses of dry food. This type of beetle is similar to rice weevils, who, too, prefer to infest stored grains.
These weevils usually attack grains like wheat, rice, corn, nuts, beans, cereal, stored cotton, buckwheat, grapes, etc.
Like fruit and nut weevils, granary weevils can also consume fruits like apples and pears.
So, you should be careful about storing your favorite fruits and keeping them free from weevil infestations.
The best way to keep them away from your food is to keep the grains and fruits in airtight containers, like glass jars and metal containers.
Also, check the food for grain weevils, wheat weevils, or maize weevils before weighing and purchasing them.
They have a knack for laying their eggs inside the grain, and their eggs can hatch even after the food is packaged, so a perfectly packed food item might end up with a weevil infestation.
What Do Vine Weevils Eat?
Unlike other weevil species, this one feeds on plants as a larva and an adult.
The black-colored beetle is about 0.35 inches long and is a nightmare for gardeners since it consumes various plant parts, from foliage to roots.
The grubs, however, are usually pale with brown heads and 0.4 inches long.
The adult weevils usually stay around the garden during summer, and the larvae start feeding from autumn until spring.
If you want to recognize a vine weevil’s presence in your garden, check the leaves of your plants. In case of an infestation, the leaves’ margins will be irregular due to the beetle’s bites.
However, the plants eaten by the adult vine weevil usually withstand the damage and continue living.
The same is not the case with larvae. These pests consume the root of the plant and do irreversible damage to the host.
Vine weevils typically eat various indoor and outdoor plants, but they are particularly attracted to those growing in containers with leaves.
The plants that grow on the ground are relatively free from weevil infestation, especially strawberries, polyanthus, and primulas.
Since the adults feed on foliage, you can see them crawling on and around the leaves of herbaceous plants and shrubs, including Rhododendrons, evergreen euonymus, hydrangeas, etc.
What Do Root Weevils Eat?
Root Weevils usually feed on several food crops, herbaceous plants, deciduous trees, broad-leaved evergreen plants, and needled plants. They rely on a variety of plants and trees to survive.
The adult weevil consumes the leaves of the plant mentioned above, while weevil larvae usually eat up their roots to grow.
The host plants for each root weevil species may differ, so we have discussed the host plant for some popular root weevil species.
Sweet Potato Weevil
It is a weevil species mainly found in the southern US, and as the name suggests, it feeds on the sweet potato as its host plant.
Strawberry Root Weevil
Found in the northern US, these beetles also follow their name and feed on strawberries as their host plant.
Carrot Root Weevil
Carrot root weevils are commonly found in the east of the US, and their host plant is usually a carrot or similar vegetable.
New York Weevil
It is found in the country’s eastern side towards the west of Nebraska and Texas. Its host plants are usually oak, beech, and hickory.
Black Vine Weevil
This one consumes a variety of broad-leaved evergreens, such as hemlocks and rhododendrons, and greenhouse plants, like asters and cyclamens.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get rid of weevils?
The most natural way to get rid of weevils is to weed your plants regularly. If you spot adult weevils or larvae, remove them with your hands.
You can also attract natural predators like frogs and tadpoles to your garden to remove the pests. Removing moisture from the soil by taking away mulch is another way to slow down their growth.
What are weevils attracted to?
It depends on which weevils we are talking about to decide the same.
The fruit and nut weevils are typically attracted to flowers and fruit-bearing trees, whereas granary weevils are interested in stored grains and many others, like plant foliage and roots.
How long do weevils live without food?
Weevils can usually live without food for about a month.
However, most do not suffer from starvation since their primary food source includes grains, foliage, fruits, and roots, which are always around.
If you are looking for a sure-shot way of killing them, refrigerate your food to a low temperature, and they will die on their own.
Do weevils bite humans?
Weevils are restricted to finding and eating their primary food source, which includes foliage, roots, fruits, grains, etc.
Thus, they do not have any interested humans, nor do they attack them or share parasitic relationships, as is the case with ticks or fleas.
However, there are a few cases of weevil bites that happen when females are looking for a host to plant their eggs.
Wrap Up
We hope this article helped you learn a thing or two about weevils and the types of food they eat.
The key takeaway is that there is a weevil for almost every plant that you can think of, so its best always to be vigilant about their symptoms and to remove them at the earliest sign to keep your plants safe and sound.
2 Comments. Leave new
Pachyrhynchus helleri ??
Pretty darn close apart from the reddish tinge on the legs…
(a species of gem beetle)
I took this pic in my garden. We have many bugs no one even cares to identify in the community like this one.