[GreyScales]

I was cleaning up and about to feed my strawberries in a trough, taking off the top layer of potting mix to replace it, when I noticed it's full of these little *...

I'd appreciate any advice on whether I should be squishing these or leaving them alone.

[m1ckz]

eewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww  horrid  but dont know what they are sry

[GreyScales]

I've now had a chance to do some searching and I think they're vine weevils...

Right, to arms 

[Yorkie]

Deffo look like vine weevils.

Squish away.

I advise trying to replace all the soil in the trough.  The eggs / weevils will be throughout.

[jondav14]

evil weevils

[GreyScales]

I had to stop because it's too dark out, the soil is absolutely full of the little pests

I've had to remove the strawberries from the trough and remove the soil right down to the root ball, there were even a few that had eaten a little den right inside the plant and I had to dig them out. What a thing to discover when you just went out to do a spring prune and feed.

I've temporarily potted them up until I can sort this out tomorrow. My concern now is there are six other troughs I'll have to check now.

[jondav14]

You may need to re-check them, the little blighters love roots, ensure you make friends with your local robin 

[Yorkie]

You can get nematodes against vine weevil, though not sure what outside temperatures are needed for them to be effective.

[GreyScales]

Google says minimum temperature has to be 12C for nematodes.

The best thing I think I can do is just strip the plants of any of them, throw the soil, then put in some fresh compost with BFB mixed in. That's one way to give them a spring feed I suppose... Thankfully strawberries are quite hardy plants and can probably take the abuse.

[GreyScales]

I removed the strawberry plants from their temporary pots, to find the compost I had only put in yesterday was riddled with the blighters. Seems they were drawn out of the strawberry crowns and were looking around... It really must be a bad infestation, I didn't think to take note of the dead leaves because it was winter.

Well I ran the roots of each strawberry under a hose and removed all the ones I could find. I threw away the old compost, which is a shame because you could tell it was healthy with the number of fat earthworms in it. I stuck them in a nearby plant pot to hopefully make a home there, then put them in fresh compost with BFB mixed in.

Of the six strawberry troughs, two were heavily infested and one only had a couple. In some cases the root ball was so dense that I couldn't thoroughly check for weevils, so I can only hope for the best.

That's all I can think to do with them for now. When things warm up I'll have to get some nematodes, just to make extra sure any left are dealt with.

They're not robbing the family of strawberries this year