Re: CULT: borer distribution

From: hipsource@aol.com

In a message dated 3/2/00 1:37:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
lmann@mailhub.icx.net writes:

 << I for one am keenly interested in hearing first hand reports of any 
actual, verified iris borer found west of the Rockies, or south of the Mason 
Dixon. >> 

Had not been a problem here in my own neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, 
about one hundred miles south of Washington, DC, until lately. Someone 
planted some older irises out in the alley a block away and neglected them 
completely and they were infested last year. May or may not have brought them 
into the neighborhood. I may even sneak up there with spray this year; it is 
that bad.

I have found one borer in my life. It was year before last and there is no 
question it was a borer because a mature one fell out of a hollow I. tectorum 
rhizome I was removing from the clump because it looked sickly. The tectorum 
was planted in high shade in cool soil that remains moist a good deal of the 
time. My soil runs on the acid side. I had not sprayed.  

Someone who lives across town told me she has intermittent but noticeable 
trouble with them and does preventive spraying as a rule. She said she also 
finds borer activity later in the summer and finds them of all sizes. Hence 
she told me that she thought there was staggered hatch, or multiple 
generations. She did not tell me what sorts of irises had been attacked, but 
she grows a lot of different ones, and a lot more irises than I, with a wide 
range of perennials and bulbs as companions. She is a trained scientist and I 
believe she is capable of drawing sound conclusions from what she is 
observing. 

I have found one suspicious pupa in the soil, which may or may not have been 
the borer, but it was near a clump of Siberians I received as a gift from 
northern Virginia. 

I understand there is a good deal of borer activity about sixty miles north 
of here.

Anner Whitehead/HIPSource@aol.com
Longitude 77 Degrees, 25 Minutes West
Latitude 37 Degrees, 32 Minutes North

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