What's eating my salal, rhodos, azalea, etc?

I'm attaching pics of a few of the plants in my garden that are being eaten by.... slugs? The pics are salal, rhodo, & foamflower... yet my azaleas and a few of my Japanese Pieris are also being eaten, can anyone id the pest and recommend how to get rid of them. I must mention though that the garden I am having problems with borders on a forest and it would appear that even some of the maples etc. in the forest have the same sort of damage, so would treating my garden for whatever pest(s) that is eating my plants really have any effect if the pests if they are coming from the forest?

Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

 

Weevils.

 

Thanks Ron. Do you have any suggestions for resources that will help me eliminate these things?

 

http://pnwpest.org/pnw/insects

Not finding URL to copy for pertinent section. So, instead (at above home page):

Click on 'Introduction' in 'Chapter' box, scroll down to 'Suppl. 4: Root Weevils, Insectigation', click on that. Move mouse over (right) to 'Go' button, click on that. 'Suppl. 4' appears.

 

Looks a little severe for weevils. And would be pretty old damage. I see a variety of plants that show abiotic symptoms very similar as your Rhodo and foamflower pics. Salal looks like a bit of both, but still that would have be one mean weevil.
One way to try and tell might be to look for new growth with regular fresh bites vs. holes apearing in the center and edges of the leaves with brown always around the damaged area like in your pics.
Well thats just my opinion, jim.

 

Black Vine Weevils

Tanglefoot and diatomaceous earth

 

Parasitic nematodes will do the job as well.

 

Thanks for the info... diatomaceous earth is something I would like to explore. I've done a search on the internet to find out what I can about this option, yet perhaps I'm not looking at the right info, I'm still left with numerous questions about this approach -- do you know of a good 'layman's' resource for information on diatomaceous earth for pest control? My questions involve the when, where, how...

-Joanne

 

I bought my nematodes at The Natural Gardener store (near UBC) last Fall, so that'd definitely be someplace that you could check. In fact, I just got their April newsletter and it said they've already got one species of nematode (Steinernema) in stock & will be getting another type (Heterorhabditis) delivered next month.

I can't tell you if the nematodes have actually worked in my garden yet (it's too early) but, from what I've read, they're really effective.

 

How safe is this product for other wildlife? What happens to birds that get it on their feathers?

Seems a pretty nasty indiscriminate stuff to use in the natural environment.

 

Tanglefoot is nothing more than a tar like substance that is painted on the base of the plant being affected. It prevents weevils from climbing upward and damaging the plant.

Cheers, LPN.

 

spraying with orthene is the only thing that I have found that will help...black vine weevils. and saturate the soil...they come out at night and go back in the day.

 

Orthene is not available or registered for use in Canada for homeowners. In fact there are no systemic insecticides available for homeowners here and only one systemic fungicide left (which is being removed this year).

 

parasitic nematodes will be available next week, so I am going to give that a try.

 

Joanne--do try the nematodes, they have worked great for me.

I apply them every Sept here, around Labor Day, to catch the grubs at a good point in their life cycle. I know there are a lot of adult (beetle) weevils right now, which won't be affected by nematodes, but you will get some of the larvae at least. If someone knows the exact best date to apply, I'd be happy to hear also...did a lot of reading to come up with Sept. as my best guess so far.

(Other than rhodos, my clematis armandii and embothrium were getting murdered by these little weevily darlings...no probs since doing the annual nematode drench)