Re: CULT: HYB: pollen crawlers

Jan, I'm not sure if you have the same little nasties that I have, but
if you do, they aren't thrips or aphids.  They are <tiny>, & more like
little wormy squirmy things - make me think of silverfish - and once
temperatures are up (80s or higher), they ruin every bit of pollen.

Does that sound like what you have?

Only solution I've found (don't want to use pesticides) is to pick
blooms or anthers before the pollen sacs are open, bring indoors under
lights, then as the little creepers move around, pick them off with
forceps.

They crawl away from picked anthers on paper indoors, making it easy to
get rid of them.  Not a problem here until temps start regularly hitting
the mid to upper 80s.

I've never bothered to look at them under high magnification to see what
they look like - too small to see details even with my two pairs of
reading glasses that I use for hybridizing (about 5 X total), but then I
need about 2.25 X now just to see normally up close.

<What does everyone use to control the miniscule aphids or whatever they

                   are that just cover my iris blooms and eat the
pollen?  It's no doubt to
                   late for this season, but would like to know what
works for the rest of
                   you.  With the low humidity here, it is already very
hard to collect
                   pollen then either before I collect it or after it is
appied, the little
                   devils scarf it up.  I will be very surprised if any
of my daubings take.
                    Thanks,

                   Jan-Tucson-Zone 8/9>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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