What is this?

A sheild bug

I don’t like killing bugs, but if they’re going to eat my plants, then it’ll be the lesser of two weevils

Definitely a weevil . Horrible little creatures . They wreck everything. Look out for their nasty little grubs . They have demolished a much loved and tended rhododendron.

I lost all the lovely ones!

Oh not boring at all, I love heuchera - I have a Plum Pudding one which is glorious bronze leaves. Lovely little plants

The rather boring heuchera have survived , planted out in a garden bed.

I planted my hosta, which had been in pots, into a neglected tiny border between a wall and a patio and they seem to be happy there (slightly chewed but survive, neglected).

Calistemon probably. I decided to re-pot some hosta that weren't doing so well and found loads of these weevil grubs. Yuk!

Nannytopsy I thought it was a stink bug too, but I think their wing casings are more pointy at the head end.

Is that what ate the roots of my heuchera in pots?

Not a shield bug - wrong shape, colour and has that weevily proboscis. Provado and nematodes get rid of vine weevils.

Looks like a shield bug to me. Quite harmless!

Stag beetle

Vine weevil

If you’re looking for vine weevil grubs to kill, please make sure you don’t kill stag beetle larvae by mistake - they are also white with orange heads and stag beetles are harmless and getting rarer.

I'm hoping it's not something known as a 'Kissing Bug' which transmits a dangerous disease known as Chagas .

Kissing Bugs used to be found only in the Americas, but in recent times have spread to other continents; Europe included. From your photo, it also looks a lot like a Kissing Bug. You could send that picture to your local government health agency, just to be sure.

www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chagas-disease-(american-trypanosomiasis)

According to my British and European Insects book it is a weevil with the Latin name Otiorhynchus clavipes which can be found on hawthornes or similar and in dense grass tufts. As to its eating habits etc I don't know off hand. However, the book says, "Larvae are usually legless and usually live inside their food plants: many live in seeds."

Just a little beetle...as said probably vine weevil. We are in France and they are everywhere. They won’t hurt you.

Yep, it's a definitely a vine weevil. I have total respect for all forms of life - great and small, but I'm afraid vine weevil and slugs are my exceptions.

(VWs make a great crunching noise underfoot - then go buy yourself some nematodes otherwise their grubs will eat all the roots of your pot plants and you'll only know about it when the plant keels over as it no longer has any sustainable roots!).

Its a kind or beetle - though i don't know the name have seen it in my garden.

Don't think it is a vine weevil. I used Google lens on your photograph and it came back as Pentatomoidea. Apparently AKA shield bug, chust bug or stink bug. I may be wrong (I was once, 1978).

Scentia

You might find past threads interesting, they are a gardeners nightmare. I hope the one you noted is an orphan!

www.gransnet.com/forums/gardening/a1195889-VINE-WEEVIL

www.gransnet.com/forums/gardening/1236592-Vine-weevils

They lay grubs in the soil which are white with an orange tip. They then grow and form legs, turn grey and are adult when they get their hard to touch feel.

They annihilate the plant by eating their way through the root , which can literally behead the plant.

If you have them you will see them but this time of the year they are getting to the adult stage pretty quickly.

They can cost a fortune to try and get rid of them but I find sifting the soil for grubs, squashing the grub is the only fail safe way to know you have at least got rid of some of them but my garden has them by the ' hundreds' even though I use Provoas.

I have never seen vine weevil eat flower heads but they do eat leaves, you see a munching on the outside. Hold a torch underneath the leaves at night and you can spot their shadow but only when fully grown.

You're welcome Scentia. Liz 46, don't bin the little b*****s: squish them between thumb and forefinger - hugely satisfying!! They love every damn thing in the garden!

Yes, I think Gaunt is right. Vine weevils love fushia (how do you spell that?) roots. I change the compost every spring and wash the roots, binning the little white grubs.

Thanks Gaunt.

It's vine weevil, they're a b****y nuisance. Live in pots usually. If you find neat little U shaped nibbles around the edges of leaves it's probably them. The damage is done by their larva, yucky little cream C shaped things which feast on the roots of the plant and can destroy it. Get rid of them with biological control in the autumn, although you might have to apply again in early spring.