RE: an iris question

Narda, I had hundreds of tall bearded iris for years and never had a
problem. I think the key is simple. The insect places its eggs in the
flower. The little worm travels down the flower stalk and into the rhizome
where the problem begins. We soon learned that as soon as the flowering was
over we removed the stalk. Do this on a dry sunny day by giving the stalk a
jerk which causes it to snap just at the top of the rhizome. Then be sure to
remove the scapes from the beds but do not compost them.
There are chemicals that will kill the little buggers but we did not find it
necessary to use them. At one time people were using DDT which did work but
now we know better than that.
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hosta-open@mallorn.com
[o*@mallorn.com]On Behalf Of NardaA@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 10:47 AM
To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
Subject: an iris question


I know that there has to be an iris expert or two there, and the question is
a simple one, my iris are infested with borers.  Nasty, nasty pink things,
gross and the iris smell like rotten potatoes.  I have dug up the whole
patch
and put them all into the garbage.

Do I give up on iris or is there something that I can do to prevent and kill
these things besides chopping them up?

Any ideas are appreciated, Narda

PS Sue you think slugs are gross, the iris borer is the scariest looking
thing that I have ever seen, some as big as my little finger.
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