The larvae, small green wormlike things, blend in so well with the leaves that sometimes you don't notice them until an entire leaf stem has been defoliated, leaving only sticks. Rhododendron fanciers are disheartened when they see the leaves of their favorite plants become so notched it looks as if someone took the pinking shears to them. Root weevil adults climb up in the shrubs and eat, while the larvae stay on the ground and in the soil munching on trunk and roots. The sticky, gooey stuff sold, for example, as Tanglefoot, can be slathered on the trunk. What you do with the fallout is your own business.
Gardeners looking after their lawns are on guard in spring for damage done by crane-fly larvae .
Dig up a square foot of sod, turn it over and start counting. Anything fewer than 40 grubs per square foot, and there's no point in even thinking you have a problem. There is a new Web site with detailed information about crane fly in our region. This has been compiled by Sharon Collman, pesticides and integrated pest-management outreach coordinator for region 10 of the EPA, and Todd Murray, with the Integrated Pest Management Program from WSU Extension in Whatcom County. Her articles appear on Thursdays.