AAAHH bugs in the bean seeds!

[antipodes]

GROSS! I went to get the pea seeds out yesterday and the box where I keep the saved been seeds was full of some kind of bug! Small, about 3 mm across, grey, kind of the same shape as a stinkbug. They had eaten some of the saved beans!  :'(  :'(  :'(
Have they been actually laid in the beans or how have they gotten in there?
I pulled everything out, shook them off, down the sink with boiling water and the cobra and kingswax that were in an envelope which was full of them, I sealed it and put it in the freezer. Will that hurt the beans? It killed the bugs  ;D

ANy ideas what they were and how I can avoid them in this year's saved seed? I had to throw out my Goldfield beans that I had saved  >:( They had been eaten to pieces.

[antipodes]

[Ellen K]

Were they weevils?

I know nothing but if the beans were dry (no water to freeze), they might still be viable.

UGH

[galina]

Fortunately I had them only once here.  And luckily, as I like to get the seeds out now and then just to look at them, I discovered them relatively early.  You can't avoid them really, but the standard remedy is to freeze them for a couple of days after having been dried thoroughly.  The other remedy is vigilance I guess, but not as effective.
This is the beastie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_weevil

[antipodes]

Yeah that looks like them! How disgusting! The beans were of course fully dry so I am hoping that freezing hasn't harmed them. They have chewed into some of the paper envelopes! Plastic seems a better idea (I will try to remember that next year!).But does this mean that the eggs were on the beans? And since we were eating the beans last summer...were we eating eggs of that? gross gross

[cornykev]

I had them a few years ago they were all over the walls and ceiling in the kitchen, I would suck them with the hoover and there would be more back later and the next day, etc.
Oh took one to work at the council and the bug dept said they were bean weevils.
I cleared out a corner where I had been keeping beans and they had eaten through everyone, it was like a perfect drill hole in each one.
I burnt the beans and packets and envelopes of beans and was still hoovering up a few every other day.
Now I store them in biscuit, choccy tins or pringle tubes and have had no problem since.  :)

[Vinlander]

Beans bring the pest with them... the eggs are inside. Plastic bags will stop the escaping weevils from going for your flour rice cereals and pasta but they may just eat the rest of your beans.

By far the best course is to freeze ALL your bean and pea seeds as soon as they are really dry.

It kills the eggs too.

Three days in the freezer has 0% effect on germiination.

Actually those horrid holes have almost no effect unless they go thro the seed embryo.

Cheers.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Freeze them for two days and you'l kill it all without harming the seeds. I had to do the same with a batch last year.

[antipodes]

Thanks so much! Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out the Goldfields??? Oh well, too late now. I will try sowing the others anyway when the time comes, maybe they will work...

Freezer it is!
(Do they affect peas as well???)

[galina]

Thanks so much! Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out the Goldfields??? Oh well, too late now. I will try sowing the others anyway when the time comes, maybe they will work...

Freezer it is!
(Do they affect peas as well???)

pea moth does - maggots and holey peas when you shell pods, but I have never seen any appearing in storage.  I hope, this means there isn't a beastie out there that does for peas.

Broad beans certainly get affected, but because the seeds are so large, it doesn't usually affect germination, just looks bad.  Good luck for the others when you sow them.