CULT: Borers

I have seen a couple of messages over the last couple of months about sending iris borers, or eggs/larvae to someone so they can experiment, evaluate, whatever.

I think this is a *very* bad idea.

First of all, it is probably illegal, depending on source and destination. I know in California it would get you in real trouble.

For a non-scientific type, working in a non-controlled envrionment (their own garden and those gardens of their club members) it is a recipe for disaster. Would you want to be the one that was responsible for opening up a new area for borer infestation? Yeah I know, "they really don't spread very fast." Well that holds well until they find an environment that just suits them to a "T" and has none of the natural inhibitors/predators in it.

Even well trained scientists make mistakes - witness the escape of the africanized honey bee.

Frequentently, you can read of a bug/fish/clam/animal/bird///// being brought into a non-native area (accidently or intentionally) and having devastating impact on the native flora or fauna.

Self-styled experimenters have no business messing around with this sort of thing. The potential for disaster is too great.

John | "There be dragons here"
| Annotation used by ancient cartographers
| to indicate the edge of the known world.

List owner iris@hort.net and iris-photos@yahoogroups.com
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