Re: borer control
- To: i*@Rt66.com
- Subject: Re: borer control
- From: L*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 19:20:50 -0400
Lee wrote - <how about taking stalks of bloomed iris, making an iris puree,
freezing this and later, spraying it all over ragweed or the like? Confuse
the dickens out of those little moths. Meanwhile, spray Chanel No. 5 on the
iris. >
What a wonderful idea. For Clarence, maybe spray it all over grass or porous
brick. But from the life history, sounds like you need to stomp foliage down
and let it become 'litter' - or harvest it, freeze it, then let it lie
around on the ground pretending to be litter; then puree that.
Is the freezing part of the recipe or is that to store for future sale?
And I can see it now - all the little noctuid moth feeders surrepticiously
hung in neighbors yards to lure the moths away. Anybody know the dispersal
distance for adult iris borer moths?
How about sex pheromones as lures? Lure them over to the iris litter sprayed
bricks, which are later doused in chlorox or lighter fluid.
Instead of perfume, how about dousing the iris with puree of predator? What
eats noctuids? Uh oh, I think I know, and it isn't something we want to
puree....How about playing recordings of echo location by the dominant night
flying predator?
Last year, I used some old red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) shavings (from
the dog bed) as mulch for part of my white potato patch. The rest of the bed
was eaten up with potato beetles, but none on the shavings mulched side. So
maybe mulch with something that confuses their little moth noses, if they
find iris litter by scent. Or if it's color, spray paint the iris beds with
non-toxic dye.
Linda Mann lmann76543@aol.com e tenn usa
