Hi Constance,
Vineweevil can be in both the garden and pots. Yes Armillatox is still available if you can find it (another EU ruling :( ), but better still is Provado, available at garden centres. Bit early for vineweevil to be nibbling outside yet, they make a half circle bite on the edge of the leaves. Curled op edges could be thrips, you don't have a problem with snails outside do you, referring to holes and edges missing on leaves.

Give them a spray with an insecticde (in the shade)and see if there's any improvement, you could also water with a Provado mix it helps to stop whitefly as well.

No I've never found a seedling plant from a fuchsia in the garden, but you never know :) :) :) Kath:)

Very sound advice from Kath as usual. I have used Provado, very successfully, for a number of years to control vine weevil, whitefly and aphids on various fuchsias including triphyllas.

Help!
I live in Los Angeles
My 2 fairly new fucshias have a pest that I do not see listed on the FAQ board.
They are tiny, tiny green critters. I now see that they are going after the young buds.
The leaves of the plants are also slightly curled. However there are a bunch of flowers on both plants.
Can someone diagnose?

Thanks,
Frankie

Hi Frankie,
It sounds as if your pests are aphids 'Green Fly'. Have you sprayed with an insecticide or with with a pure soap solution? Don't spray if the sun is shining on your plant. - Kath:)

Thanks for the info Kath.
I've never heard of a green aphid....hhmmm. I thought they were all white. I haven't sprayed with anything yet. I just had my daughter take an infested bloom to the nursery (tightly sealed in a plastic bag) to see what they say.
I'm hoping they have a spray that won't hurt the hummers.
I've grown many fucshias in the past but this is the first attack of green meenies I've ever seen. Thanks again.
Frankie

Good idea Frankie, to take the 'green meenies' to a local nursery for identification. Yes, there are numerous colours and types of aphids, but of course I'm talking of here in the UK, and you may have different 'meenies' than I do :) but am sure the nursery will be able to be more precies - Kath :)

Re: "one of my six fuchias is looking a little affected by something"

As Kath said Vine Weevil cause a lot of damage to leaves with the tell tale sign being a semi circular piece being eaten from the edge (similar to a piece being nipped out of the leaf by your thumb nail).

Curled or 'puckered' leaves indicate the presence of either thrips or more likely aphids (the 'sucking' action of the pest causes the distortion).

Again as Kath said the holes in the middle of the leaves could be caused by slugs, another possibility could be caterpillars ( I found one on my fuchsias yesterday as I was removing all the leaves and pruning the stems to start the plants growing again for exhibiting next year).

A good idea when you suspect you have a problem is to isolate the plant from the others (obviously only applicable to pots) until you establish the problem - place the pot on a peice of white paper and shake the pot vigorously, check if anything falls from the leaves. If a Vine Weevel falls onto the paper don't be fooled into thinking it is dead because it doesn't move, this is some form of defence - dispose of them, and anything else that falls, as appropriate.

I have sprayed my plants this year with 'Liquid Derris' every Sunday and Wednesday without fail up until 2 weeks ago (beginning of Sept) and I have not seen one aphid and only a couple of whitefly - vigilance really is the key word.

One point that I feel I must mention is that although you can see the presence of Vine Weevil by the damage they cause to the leaves it is the damage that the Vine Weevil grubs cause to the roots that will eventually kill the plant if left unchecked. You need to knock the plant out of the pot and check in the root ball, if you see a chunky maggot like creature with a distint chestnut coloured head you need to make sure all these are removed or you will end up with a plant that collapses on you and you are perpetuating your problems. The use of Provado2 can be recommended.

Sorry for going on a bit but I hope these points help