CLOSED: Small, Black Weevils in seedsWHAT ARE THEY????

I have had this problem every year when i collect my Tall, perennial Hibiscus seeds. It is a pain in the A......!

Please click on the Hyperlink below and read about it and see the photos.....Then--can you ID these and tell me what I can do about them????? I am getting fed up!!!!!

If you can help me--I would be grateful! It is such a bother to deal with this, as I like to share my seeds with fellow DG'ers.

Thanks, Gita


http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/907318/#new

I get them too... the weevils are in the flowers as the plant is blooming, on mine anyway. They're tiny... not sure but they might be these beetles:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/102847

These might be Althaeus hibisci (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae; subfamily Bruchinae) - see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4017/is_200504/ai_n15349384/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1

Thanks claypa and suunto,

I checked out both links and seems both fit the description.

suunto--the article in your link is just too scientific for me to read all of it, but i did gather that the larva enter the developing seeds and grow inside there. This means the seeds are 'doomed" to be infested.

I did not see in the article any advice on what I could do to prevent these weevils from entering the seeds--but I also realize that this kind of advice was not the point of this scientific article.
Would YOU have any suggestions? Since they enter the blooms after they open, I would have to be out there 20 hrs. a day every day to spray. NOT a possibility!

So--let me ask for your expert opinions on this site what can be done with the seeds once they are collected?
--If I froze them for 24 hrs. would that kill them? Of course--the damage to the seed would already be done--right?
--Would putting all the seeds in some water with a few drops of dish detergent kill them? Would it hurt the seeds any?
--Spraying them with insecticide as they crawl around kills them OK--but not all of them crawl out of the seeds at the same time. This is what I have dome mostly....
A messy and stinky job!

Asking for ANY ideas out there. Has anyone had success with any means with these?

My main concern is that I have always shared these seeds with DG members--and it is a given that many of the seeds will have their nutrient centers eaten out--so, no germination would be possible. Sorting through about 2 cups-full of these seeds and culling out the ones with the holes in them seems unrealistic.....

Thank you in advance....

Gita

Having no personal experience with controlling seed weevils of any sort, I can only pass on the following advice from a fact sheet on these insects as pantry pests: "All insect life stages can be killed by super-cooling in a deep freeze at 0 degrees F for 4 days, cold storage at 32 degrees F for 58 days, or super-heating in an oven at 145 degrees F for 2 hours or in a microwave oven for 5 minutes. However, seeds saved for planting may have the germination reduced by super-cooling, super-heating, or microwave methods. After treatment, seeds should be stored in containers of glass, heavy plastic, or metal with screw-type, airtight lids. Refrigeration or deep freeze storage is helpful."
Hope this helps,

Wow!

IF cold freezing--oven heating and microwaving will, most likely, destroy the germination of these seeds--then why bother?

Maybe next year--I just won't collect any seeds at all! Not worth it......
I have plenty from the last couple of years.....just have to get rid of the ones with holes in them.....Who has time for that?

Gita

It says "may have the germination reduced", not "destroy" the germination... I agree though, it seems like too much trouble. You could save out a few of the good seeds - they seem to germinate reliably, and that's a LOT of seeds there, no way you'd have room to grow them all!
I just have a plain old pink one from my friend's swamp in Maryland. It's really pretty, but all the Malvaceae seem to be insect pest magnets. If I can get them past the Japanese beetles, I'm happy.

There's a tip on Wuvie's page about driving the weevils out of a bag of hollyhock seeds with pennyroyal oil, it might work for you:

http://www.wuvie.net/hockdiseases.htm

claypa,

If i could get all these bugs to "gather att he top" I would simply brush them all into the sink, rinse them down the drain and turn on the garbage disposer....

What is pennyroyal oil and where can one buy it?

Thanks--G.

It's a oil of a mint plant, Mentha pulegium - I don't know, probably wherever aromatherapy stuff is sold. Home Depot? lol
You can find nearly anything online these days. Neem might work, just a guess.