The curculio is a major pest of southern peas and snapbeans. Other wild plants are also hosts. The egg-laying punctures lower the quality of the beans, and infestation of seeds make the green peas unsuitable for human food.
The insect overwinters as an adult and finds its way to the fields to lay eggs when pods are developed. Eggs hatch into larvae which develop within individual seeds and then drop to the ground for pupation.
