CULT: borers

Hi All,

I was out cleaning beds this morning and found a larval stage of 
something crawling around on the soil inside an MDB clump.  It was maybe 
around 1/2" long and looked like it might possibly have been a borer 
larva, but I doubt it could be.  Up here, we have had a couple freakishly 
warm +70 degree days so far (a week or so ago and not consecutively, if 
memory serves).  At any rate, even if borer eggs did manage to hatch 
during that brief warmth, they surely wouldn't yet be as plump and long 
as this little thing was this morning.  But it did get me wondering again 
about a question I posed to the list at about this same time last year 
.. and which no one attempted to answer.

Where does a hatchling borer go if there are not yet any iris leaves for 
it to crawl up on and chew its way into when it hatches?

My MDBs and SDBs are showing an inch of growth or less.  TBs are mostly 
still dormant or just starting to show green tips at the soil surface.  
If we get two or three consecutive 70+ degree days - could happen anytime 
- which will supposedly trigger borer hatch, will they bore directly into 
the rzs in lieu of leaves which have not yet appeared?  Does anyone know?

Bewildered and thinking I should be buying a bag of Merit pretty darn 
quickly!

Laurie


-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/shadowood/irisintro.html
USDA zone 3b, AHS zone 4 - northern MN
acidic clay soil

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index