CULT: Borers in Louisianas, etc.

For the second time in three years, borers are infesting my Louisiana
Irises.  The irises are grown in their own bed which is somewhat sunken,
but otherwise very like a typical border.  Looks like about 10-15% of the
rhizomes are infested.  Curiously no TBs show signs of borer damage.  About
three years ago, I lost most of my foetidissima to borers as well.

Recieved wisdom is that the borer does not occur south of about Washington,
DC.  We are considerably south of there.  Does anyone else have any reports
of possibly anomalous borer occurences?

I may well have been responsible for bringing them in.  ABout 20 years ago,
I ordered a group of iris rhizomes imported from Pakistan, hoping for
something unusual.  Each of the dozen rhizomes had a borer in it--which led
me to suspect they had been grown in the US; I still do not know if the
iris borer is native only the northeastern part of North America, or is
found wherever irises grow.  All of the Pakistani irises, by the way,
turned out to be I. albicans, which I still have though it blooms sparsely,
being in part shade.

Anyone out there have any more detailed information on the iris borer?  Is
it a European import, like many of our pestiferous insects?

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@tiger.hsc.edu>
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