I just wanted to provide a slightly lengthier update on the mysterious citrus attack which happened recently. As I mentioned, we had some early confusion about the exact identification of the critter, but it was cleared up when Justin (from a gardening forum I intermittently inhabit) recognised it as an Elephant Weevil.
A weevil! Of this size! I had no idea such large weevils existed - I'd only ever come across the sorts of tiny little weevils you might find in flour.
In any case, it was clear that this interesting little guy was causing all the damage to my orange tree, so he definitely had to go. Luckily, I didn't have to squash him; I can't stand squashing living things, which does occasionally make gardening a little tricky. @angrygoat expressed an interest in taking some macro photos of the weevil, so I craftily offered to deliver the weevil to him - squashing unnecessary!
He took a magnificent photo of the weevil, which you can see on the Wikipedia page I have linked to above, but as it's licensed under Creative Commons I think I can include it here with attribution:
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| Photo by Grahame Bowland, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elephant_Weevil.jpg |
Oh, it's amazing and very scary close up. I'm not happy with the squashing either, I am very squeamish, so I am glad he went to another home and your oranges are safe.
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