Weevils and other tiny creatures

The other day I was cutting lodgepole firewood up near Skyliner's (don't bother taking the time looking in the Sisters District wood-cutting area; its all gone).

I was about to put the undercut in an old, dry, bug-killed lodgepole, when a snazzy spider came scampering out from under the bark and ran between my legs, and sure enough, one of my kid helpers, standing well away in the safety zone, spotted it. I have always given specific instructions to all who are with me cutting wood to NEVER come near me when the saw is going. If someone wants to get my attention they are to throw a small stick at me.

The stick hit my backside and I shut off the saw immediately and looked around. One of the kid helpers was shouting and pointing to the spider scampering away. I couldn't hear him with my earplugs in, but we both had the spider in view.

"Come on over and help me catch it!" I shouted, and in moments, between the two of us, I had the spider in hand. It turned out to be a beautiful male wolf spider trying to get settled for winter under the bark of the old lodgepole, but I ruined that.

And so it was when my son, Caleb, and his family came to help cut wood in the beginning of fall. He has two sons, Daxon, the oldest and Graham, the younger. Both are insatiable collectors of Spiderman stuff, and have more curiosity in their little finger than I have in my whole leg.

Caleb and wife Kendra wanted to take home some of Sue's beautiful big hollyhocks she has going next to our barn in our deer-proof kitchen garden. (Yes, dear people of Sisters Country, believe-it-or-not, there is such a thing as a "deer-proof garden," thanks to my persistent wife and her fencing, topped with white string.)

Inasmuch as the hollyhocks had begun going to seed, Caleb and Kendra thought hauling seed made a lot more sense than tall plants. When we brought a bag-full of seeds onto the back porch, we decided to crack open the pods and just haul seed without the chaff.

As the first pod cracked open - I think it was Daxon standing a few feet away - shouted, "Look!" pointing to the seeds. We all looked, and there, not much larger then pin-heads, things were moving in amongst the seeds; they turned out to be the tiniest weevils I have ever seen.

This was a "lifer" for me. Just like those who keep a life list on the birds they've seen in their lifetime, I keep a life list on insects, spiders, reptiles, and amphibians I've seen and know.

Well, we had to get a hand-lens to see the details of those microscopic weevils in amongst the hollyhock seeds, and sure enough, there were the females and males. You can tell the difference by the length of the snout on the weevil; the males are shorter than the females. (The female uses the longer snout to get deeper into the flowers where she lays her eggs.)

A weevil is a beetle with a long snout, with antennae on each side of the snout. They are usually small, and herbivorous. Like most arthropods, there are lots of them world-wide, 60,000 species in several families. (Some other beetles, because they look weevil-ish, bear the name "weevil", such as the biscuit weevil, legendary to miners in the old days.)

And here's the bad news for those who keep food storage: Weevils are often found in dry foods, including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products, such as pancake mix. If you want some extra protein, forget the weevils and cook 'em up with the pancakes.

I have an old pal from the '60s living in Colorado who knows everything about everything with six or eight legs: Eric Eaton, author of Kauffman's "Insects of North America." I shot several photos of the tiny weevils, and sent them to Eric with the question: "Which weevil is this?" and his immediate response was, "The hollyhock weevil." Duhhh, found them in hollyhock seeds. Why didn't I think of that...? If brains were dynamite, I couldn't blow my nose.

If you see your hollyhocks beginning to droop next summer, you may have too many hollyhock weevils dining on them, perhaps opening the door to other pests, such as leaf-eating and sap-sucking insects, who are taking advantage of the weakened state of your lovely flowers.

Start controlling the pests physically, NOT chemically. When the seeds have appeared in their flat, washer-like pods, break them open, shake the seeds out on a white sheet and remove the weevils. If you have a pet lizard or frog, drop the weevils in the cages and the reptile and/or amphibian will think they've died and gone to heaven with so much to eat. Plant those sanitized seeds and you will probably have healthy hollyhocks again.