[zoedroberts]

Hi all, im a newbie to this board and gyo and have hit a problem.  I use chicken manure as a fertiliser on my tomato plants, yesterday I noticed that there were small white maggots in the actual manure, dosent appear to have gone down to the tomato roots but hard to tell.  Really not sure what to do or what they are.  These are toms grown in the greenhouse, are currently flowering and growing lovely.

Many thanks for your help!

[Yorkie]

Welcome to the site 

One type of maggot which is creamy-white, about 1 cm long and has a brown head, is the vine weevil larvae.  Try googling for an image and see if it compares.

If it is vine weevil, they will attack the roots and I'd suggest a biological control which you water on.  Check something like provado to see whether it's suitable for use on edible crops.  You can get it in the usual garden centres and sheds.

[zoedroberts]

They look like the weevil grub....NOT happy!  Have tried to dig out as many as poss as they just appear to be in the chicken manure on the top of the soil and sacrificed one of the plants to look at the roots but didnt find any??  Soooo upsetting!  Luckily I have toms planted outside as well!

[SarahB]

Vine weevil larvae in chicken manure sounds a bit weird - are you sure that's what it is, rather than some kind of chicken parasite?  It's a bit late in the year for finding weevil grubs, unless they're this year's, but then they'd be a lot smaller.  If so, you'll probably have leaf notching as well (noticable angular chunks bitten out of the leaf edges by the adults).

If you're sure it's vine weevil, don't use Provado - it contains thiocloprid, and they recommend not using it on food crops, because it's systemic (gets into the whole plant).  I'd second Yorkie's suggestion of biological control.  Used twice in the same year, it'll wipe out any infestation, and has no bad side effects.

[Livinhope]

Adult vine weevils crawl into the holes at the bottom of pots and lay their eggs which then over winter in the soil eventually turning into the grubs which do the damage.  They are highly unlikely to be vine weevils as by now they would be long gone adults looking round to repeat the process.