I recently get to know this pest that cut off many of my sunflowers. A search in permie forum came back empty so maybe it's not common. Yet I put some photos here in case someone has a similar problem in the future.
Yes, we have this one!
The earlier I plant the more avoidable.
I like sowing my sunflower seeds way before first frost and notice that there are many volunteers that must have wintered over.
They are just now doing their damage but only to a few flowers
This year they are nipping a few of the mexican sunflowers also.
Good link and photos!
"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young
My volunteer black oil seed sunflowers mature early and avoided these. They also attack others in the sunflower family, including sunchock, severing the tops. Since adults bugs lay eggs in the dropped flower heads, I make sure to get rid of the flowers on the ground as well.
Ahh, these buggers are back again, attacking everything including sunchokes, coneflower, black eyed Susan besides regular sunflowers. I do have lots of predatory insects and spiders but they won't bother with the tiny weevils. Plants with thicker stalks are more resistant though. Here I got one in action.
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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
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