Ugh! It does sound like agave weevils. They can be a real nuisance now and then. Their favorite plant is a ready-to-bloom Agave americana but they'll also attack any agave getting ready to bloom, and even non-ready-to-bloom agaves that are soft and tasty (A. attenuata come to mind, lol).

I've had them infest a variegated A. americana at my last garden. It was easy to see what was happening as one day the plant looked a little shrivelled and the next it was what I call a witch's hat: a the cone of new foliage standing upright but all of the mature leaves flat against the ground, LOL. The leafy top came off of the roots with a gentle tug and yup, there they were: agave weevil grubs, happily chewing away and a nasty brown mess (which did smell nice by the way, heh heh, as by then it's filled with fermented sugar).

I just dug the whole plant out and discarded it after killing all the grubs I could find (birds love them but I smashed them all). I also discarded the pups of that plant since some folks think that vulnerability (especially when plants are not at blooming size) is inherited by clones/pups.

If you have infested plants you want to save, I've read that diazanon is a good treatment and preventative, and I've read that good ol' Imidacloprid (the systemic insecticide in the Bayer Systemic Insecticides) will do the trick too.

Usually people don't notice until it's too late to save the main plant, but you might try an insecticide if you have pups or a plant you want to save. I tend to just discard the whole mess and replace with a large growing aloe or something.

I've had them attack an agave and kill it while ignoring one ten feet away, so it seems sort of random. I have twenty or so different types of agaves in my garden and other than the one attack a few years ago, that's all I've seen on AGAVES, though my beautiful, lovely Macha Mocha mangave (Agave x Manfreda) got a Case Of The Grubs this spring and was dead by the time I noticed it. Grrr, LOL.

As mentioned, they do prefer the americana plus any of the soft-leaf types, so a lot of people will only plant hard-leaf non-americana types, like A. parryi, or A. stricta, or A. victoria-reginae etc, though nothing is probably totally safe. I have a lot of soft-leaf agaves (attenuata, vilmoriana, and others) that are probably very, very appealing to momma beetle.

I know, I know, it's kind of disturbing isn't it??

Hopefully others will chime in with treatments or prevention, plus stories too. Good or bad, it's fun to hear what's going on (or what has) in everyone's garden.

Let us know what you do and how it works out! Good luck,
Grant

thanx Grant . I can always count on you to answer my posts.
Tom and I are planing on pulling it out this weekend .It is to bad cause it is huge and yes proably ready to bloom in a year or so.,,,sigh,,,oh the other hand that leaves me with a gaping hole to fill..mmmmm....what will I plant there. I will have to take pics of the area and ask for suggestions.

CB

I've had a very similar experience as Grant. I use Bayer Rose systemic found at Home Depot and it seems to work fine. I used to use Diazanon, but for me, it's getting harder and harder to find. Once I see that ONE agave is in need of treatment, I treat them ALL with it and water it in well. Then treat again in 3 months or so.

Kevin

Hiya CB, Kevin and all,

Sorry for your loss, CB, that's too bad. I like Mary Irish's attitude about the whole thing: a ready-to-bloom agave would be dead in a year anyway, so the weevils really don't remove it from the landscape much earlier than it would have done itself anyway.

Of course, younger agaves are a different matter, LOL. Kevin, I like your approach about treating all of them if/when you see one with trouble--that's a good approach.

I was out working in the garden today and stopped to admire the agaves and shuddered at the thought of my massive americana, or my little variegated octopus agaves getting zapped, or any of the others for that matter.

Let us know what you put in the agave's spot. We'd love to see/hear allllll about it.

Take care,
Grant

Found this post and wanted to follow up grant's post with a pointer to mine:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cacti/msg0813480421378.html

I wish I'd seen this post earlier. Perhaps there was still time to save my plant although probably not. The advice I got that my agave was fine but perhaps a little overwatered was definitely not correct. The leaves laying flat was a sure sign of the plant collapsing due to the infestation of the weevils.

Hi chudak and everyone,

Thanks for the link. Yup, your one agave definitely has/had agave weevils. Infested plants develop what I call a "witch's hat" where the central cone of unfurled leaves stays mostly upright, but the outer leaves flatten out to the ground. Ugh. I see in your post you confirmed the presence of the weevils. Ugh, they're just nasty, LOL.

I have some A. americana that they've left alone, and others that they've killed quickly. I think the best thing to do is to try to grow non-americana types that are hard leaved (like A. weberi and A. parryi, but even they can get infested) and hope for the best.

I do have a huge clump of very large blue A. americana and frankly I wouldn't mind if some agaves came in and took it out, LOL, but I know how annoying they can be. I still have a dozen different types of agaves in my landscape, but I always plant them with the expectation that they could be wiped out at any time, so I don't use them as the absolute foundation of a planting.

Sorry about your plant. Good luck and thanks again for the link!

Take care,
Grant

I have a whole different problem...something is munching on the variegated American agave in our backyard. The plant is about 3 years old and not flowering BUT the lower 'leaves' have been devoured by something, e.g., they are not there anymore but teeth marks are! These spikes are easily 15" long and 3-4" wide possibly 1/4" thick. There are gophers (we call 'em gonzos) in the wash behind the house. Our property has walls and a view fence with chicken wire 24" up so we don't think it could be anything larger (never seen a rabbit in the yard either). Our dogs do go crazy around the plant so something was there. Any ideas and better yet what to do?

Don't know where you are, so just a wild guess that it's either rabbits or wood rats, more likely rabbits.

Thank you. We are in Anthem, AZ outside of Phx. I doubt rabbits as we have dogs and have blocked entrances - never seen a rabbit it 2+ years

Wood rats can inflict similar damage, just not as much of it. If you can keep the pups out of harms way, try setting a rat trap near the plant. Peanut butter + raisins makes a very effective bait combination.