RE: HYB: Verbena Bud Moth larvae

Dear Will,
Verbena moths are here also. I have had good luck putting the foot of an old stocking over the
pod very early on and fastening it with a twistie. You may be short of ladies stockings though.
Pat in Dallas

From: <willwarner@alltel.net>
Reply-To: iris@hort.net
To: <iris@hort.net>
Subject: [iris] HYB: Verbena Bud Moth larvae
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 19:41:56 -0500

While harvesting Iris seed pods the last couple of days, I noticed several
that had holes in them from Verbena Moth Larvae.  This is nothing new,
they are really common here.  Something I hadn't noticed before is that
most had entered the pod right where the dried flower was curled over
and touching the pod.  I remove these dried flowers when harvesting the
pods, and that's when I noticed the holes in the pod, the dried flower
was hollowed out and filled with dropping from the grubs.  I'm
wondering if the moth lays it's eggs on the flower and then the eggs
hatch and the grub burrows into the pod?  I wonder if it would help to
remove the dried flowers from the pods earlier?  When I find the holes in
the pod, I removed the grub.  Most of the time there would only be one,
but on some there were several. On some of the more dried pods, the
grub had already turned into a cocoon.  I did notice a few pods where
the grub had entered toward the bottom of the pod, where the remants
of the sheath were, droping were more visable.  Most pods that were
properly cleaned of the sheath and the dried flower had remained away
from the pod (usually still up in the air), had no grubs.  I harvested over
150 pods this year, the most ever for me.  Has anyone else ever noticed
this?  I'm also curious if Verbena Bud Moths are common all over the US?
Will Warner
SW MO
Zone 6

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