Wine Industry Newsletter

Garden weevil soft controls demonstrations

Adult garden weevils

A number of vignerons in the Margaret River and Great Southern wine regions investigated different soft options to manage garden weevil during the 2016/17 season.

This activity received support from the Regional Program of Wine Australia in collaboration with Wines of Western Australia and its' technical committee.

Six vineyards in the Margaret River and Frankland regions participated and met separately in their own region at the start of the activity in August 2016 and then jointly in Manjimup, the geographic half way point, for the review session in July 2017.

The ranges of novel approaches to weevil management assessed were:

  • potassium silicate applied to the canopy
  • a biological mixture in development (Matrix and Sophter) applied to the canopy
  • the role of vineyard floor plants on weevil distribution and abundance
  • the insect fungal mix Mycoforce™ incorporated in the soil
  • trunk wrap exclusion bands of Dacron
  • refined clay e.g. Surround® applied to the canopy
  • cultivation to potentially control the soil borne life stages of garden weevil.

The only conclusive result was that the Dacron bands (especially when fluffed up) provided a deterrence to weevil accessing the vine canopy.

Unfortunately 2016/17 wasn’t particularly bad for garden weevil, so the abundance was too low to assess other methods.

Vignerons enjoyed exchanging management techniques of what they regard as a key pest and are keen to move away from synthetic insecticides, which are effective but their longevity and continued reliance  is questionable.

Vignerons were enthusiastic to continue their investigations for another season to determine whether the reliance on broad spectrum insecticides can be reduced. Some of these options were investigated in small lot work some years ago  when a research project on garden weevil was undertaken by the Department of Agriculture and Food. This new work involves the same products, plus some new ones on a larger scale.

Results of the investigations will be presented at workshops in both regions after the 2018 vintage.

For more information contact Stewart Learmonth, Senior Research Officer on +61 (0)8 9777 0167 or Alison Mathews, Development Officer on +61 (0)8 9777 0122